THE GRECIAN DRAMA: 



TREATISE 



THE DRAMATIC LITERATURE 



OF 



THE GREEKS. 



BY THE 



REV. J. R. DARLEY, M.A. 

FRTNCIPAE OF THE ROYAL SCHOOL OF DUXGANNON. 



DUBLIN : 
HARDY & WALKER, LOWER SACKVILLE-STREET j 

LONDON : RICHARD GROOMERIDGE, PATERNOSTER -ROW, 

1840. 




^ 



x%\ 



ADVERTISEMENT 



The following Treatise will be found to contain a greater 
quantity of well-arranged matter than any single work 
hitherto published on the same subject. Nothing has been 
left undone to render it a complete manual of the Dramatic 
Literature of the Greeks. 

The first chapter is composed of extracts from Bentley's 
Dissertation on Phalaris, divested of all extraneous and 
useless matter. 

The second is a History of the Origin, Development , 
and Decline of the Greek Tragedy and Comedy. 

The third gives a detailed account of the Dramatic 
Contests, the Actors, the Chorus, the Audience, the 
Theatre, the Scenic Dresses, and concludes with a Tabular 
View of the Chronology of the Greek Drama. 

The fourth contains important observations of a miscel- 
laneous nature, which could not be embodied in the regular 
and historical course of the second and third chapters. 



VI ADVERTISEMENT, 

The fifth is a reprint of T wiring's Translation of Aris- 
totle's Treatise on Poetry. 

The sixth is a very full and accurate Treatise on Greek 
Prosody and Greek Metres. 

The seventh is an Analysis of Hermann's Treatise on 
the Doctrine of Metres, and of Porson's Preface to the 
Hecuba, and Supplement. 

The eighth is the most extensive compilation yet pub- 
lished on Canons of Criticism, 

The ninth is composed of a most copious collection of 
Questions for Examination. 

The Table of Contents is ah accurate analysis of the 
entire work. Every work bearing on the subject has been 
consulted, and nothing has been omitted which would tend 
to elucidate this interesting branch of Grecian literature. 



Ddngannon College, 
May 16, 1840. 




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^.^.Portico adorned with statues. 


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„v~E laodoi. 


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ono 


— ~~Double flight of steps. 


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~~ YlporjK-O'tOV. 


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„ A large saloon. 


0. o™™™ 


Z~ Dressing rooms. 


P. P.__ 


—Receptacles for the stage machinery. 


v. v . 


~~„wJDoors communicating with the stage. 


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h. g _ 


— ~~Hospitales. 


FGTT.FGTT. 


«w^«v^ria a7Knv i * . 


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~ Passages into the theatre from without 


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-~~,„~SimiIar passages. 


R.R _ 


Two halls. 


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~+~-~~ h.voiv'nfffj.a. 


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— . — A second 'Ayar/sr^a. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I, 

EXTRACTS FROM BENTLEY's DISSERTATION ON PHALABIS. 

Original metre of tragedy and comedy— Sources of tragedy and co- 
medy — Susarion, Epicharmus — Five Iambic verses incorrectly attri- 
buted to Susarion— Rule for converting the date in Olympiads to 
the year B.C.— EiSaaKoKtat — Original prizes for tragedy and comedy 
— Arundeiian marbles — Sannyrio — Ten testimonies in favor of 
Thespis being the inventor of tragedy — Epigenes — Five objections 
against Bentley's opinion that Thespis published nothing in writing 
— Answers to these objections— Foundation on which the answers 
rest — Age of Thespis — Threefold proof of — Four Phrynichuses — 
Only one of them a tragic poet — Thespis younger than Phalaris — 
Plutarch incorrectly asserted that Thespis acted plays in Solon's 
time— Tragedy not older than Thespis — Contrary opinion illogi- 
cally deduced from passages in Aristotle, Laertius, Plato, Hero- 
dotus, and Plutarch — Bentley, from the derivation of the word, 
concludes that the name of tragedy was not older than Thespis— 
He argues, from the Arundel marble, from Dioscorides, and from 
Horace, that the goat was first constituted the prize in the time of 
Thespis — His argument answered — The satyrical plays of the Greeks 
different from the satire of the Romans — 'Ef apa%ns Xt-yeti', nonveveiv, 
teipvpi&iv — Nature of the Dithyramb — Especially cultivated in the 
Doric cities — Lasus, Arion, Simonides, Archilochus — Tragic cho- 
ruses in Sicyon — Xopog Kwnmbg, rpa-tiKoc, k6k\ioo — Prize of the "dithy- 
ramb, derivation Of name — K«juy3/a, rpay^ia, Tpi/7-yd/a~K 4 0apy3o/-- 






Ylll CONTENTS. 

TpaY^a/a not used metaphorically for sumptuousness until after the 
time of Demosthenes — Expenses of, the tragic chorus, x°p*£ &vdpu>v, 
irvppi X «T>rai, cyclian chorus, chorus of boys, comedians, young Pyr- 
richists — Source of the materials of tragedy—Only two Historic 
tragedies 1 



CHAPTER II. 

HISTORY OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 

History of Tragedy. — Principle in human nature to which the Drama 
owes its origin — The Drama originally connected with religion — 
Bacchus a modern divinity in Greece — The Dithyrambic hymn— 
The Phallic song — The first stage of the Drama — The Satyric 
chorus — Distinct prizes assigned — The Satyric chorus particularly 
cultivated at Phlius — The addition of this chorus formed the se- 
cond stage of the Drama — The Satyric chorus and Dithyramb pro- 
bably found a footing in Attica during the remote times of kingly 
rule — Susarion— Epicharmus — Thespis, the author of the third stage 
of the Drama— His inventions and improvements — Difference of 
opinion as to the subjects of his Dramas — Phrynichus, the author of 
the fourth stage of the Drama — His improvements — Indebted to 
Homer — His Drama a serious opera of lyric song, and skilful dance 
—His excellencies and defects— Cumberland thinks that Thespis 
may have written some tragedies, whose subjects were taken from 
Homer — Opinion in Aristotle's Poetics as to the origin of the Drama 
— The Drama owed much of its magnificence to the overthrow of 
the Persians — Origin of scenic entertainments at Rome — Fabellse 
Atellanae— -Chcerilus — Pratinas — The Satyric Drama— Orchome- 
nian inscriptions — Lyric tragedy — iEschylus, author of the fifth 
stage of the Drama — History of the life of iEschylus, the improve- 
ments he made in the Drama, his philosophical sentiments, &c. — 
Opinions of Aristophanes, Aristodemus, Longinus, Dionysius, and 
Quinctilian with respect to the relative merits of iEschylus, So- 
phocles, and Euripides— Comedians and philosophers contempora- 
neous with iEschylus — Sophocles, author of the sixth and perfect 
form of tragedy — History of the life and works of Sophocles — Dis- 
tinction between the choral odes of iEschylus and of Sophocles— 



CONTENTS. IX 

History of the life, writing?, philosophical sentiments, &e. of Euri- 
pides—Opinions of Aristophanes, Menander, Quinctilian, Cicero, 
Socrates, Archelaus, Aristotle and Longinus, with respect to the 
character and merits of Euripides — Comparison of the three great 
tragedians — Inferior tragedians — Last recorded Greek tragedy — 
Comparison of the Clytaemnestra of iEschylus with the Lady Mac- 
beth of Shakspeare — Vittorio Alfieri — The Dithyramb the source 
of tragedy as to form, the Homeric poems as to matter — The Gre- 
cian mysteries derived from Egypt — The Dorian drama lyrical — 
The Athenians, though the inventors of tragedy, borrowed the ma- 
terials from others — Euripides, in his estimation of the chorus, sup- 
plies a link between the ancient and modern tragedy — Two causes 
of the deficiency of the Greek drama in the development of human 
nature — The Choric odes merit especial regard for two reasons — 
Greek tragedy flourished and declined with its native country — 
Tragi-comedy— Greek tragedy a simple, unequal, and imperfect 
thing — Unities of action, time, and place. 
History of Comedy. — Origin — Progress— Homer's Margites — Grecian 
comedy threefold— Distinction between each species — First and last 
writers in each — Epicharmus — Phormis— Dinolochus — Chionides— 
Magnes— These five the Fathers of comedy— Quinctilian recom- 
mends the old Greek comedy as the best model (Homer excepted) 
for the orator—Cratinus — Crates — Phrynichus — Eupolis— Aristo- 
phanes— Mode of ascertaining the dates of his birth and death — I 
History of his life and writings — Eleven of his comedies extant— 
Pherecrates— Thirty-four writers of the middle comedy — Principal 
writers of the new comedy— Philemon — Menander — Diphilus— 
Apollodorus — Six selected by the ancient critics as the models of 
the new comedy • . . .27 

CHAPTER ILL 

DRAMATIC CONTESTS — CHORUS — THEATRE, &C. 
Dramatic Contests History of their origin, progress, and duration— 

AiovvaiaraKar uypoi'Q — Ti Ativcua — Tct Kar aaiv — • AaK<l>\ia — Oeolvia — Ut9oiyia — 
Xoeg— Xvrpoi — Tu ev Iletpaiei— u"f(ovo9eTt}£ — enifxeXtntlQ — X°Pnyo<j — avTtxopriyoi — 
uvrididdffKaXoi— avrlre\voi— \opov Xafteiv — x°P°v 6iidcrKeiv — x^o" curelv — x°P° v 

doZvat—btiuaKeivipafxa—TeTpaXoyia — rpiXoyia — First and last recorded te- 
tralogies — Passage from Diogenes Laertius interpreted by Twining- 



X CONTENTS. 

— Choragic expenses — Prizes — Judges — Number of dramas pro- 
duced at one representation — Number of clioragi — Reason why tri- 
logies, or three connected plays, were performed — Orestia of JEs- 
chylus — Difference between the ancient and modern theatrical ex- 
hibition,-;. 
Actors.— Chorus. Legitimate number of actors — Their names — Ex- 
ception to the law of three actors — Date of this exception — Mean- 
ing of the term eo-Keva— Estimation in which actors were held — 
Paid by the state — No female actors — No foundation for the opinion 
that the Greek tragedy was divided into Acts — Aristotle's division of 
tragedy with respect to quantity — Prologue — Called by Aristotle 
deTyua \6yov — Sophocles excelled in the prologue— Episode — Corres- 
ponds to our act — Surest test of the poet's abilities — Exode — *Ef65<o< 
vofxoi — Chorus — Eight arguments in favour of — Number of x°P tl,T «»-— 

M tiller's hypothesis — K« T a fuyu, kcitcc aroixovg — Xlapobog, jueTava<rra<r<£, 

hiriirapobos, a<podog — Duties of the chorus according to Aristotle and 

Horace — Kopvtpcuog, ftfenwi', fico-oxopoQ—bixopia, Tp<x°P«a> tj/jLixopta, avrtxopta 
— VTroKoAiria, 7paft,ucu— xopodfcK~>i£ — x o P 0l ^<<5ucrKaA(H — Stl'Ophe, antistl'Ophe, 

opode — Dramatic dances— Lyric dances — Doric, Phrygian, Ionic, 
and Mixo-Lydian Modes — Odes of two classes, of the former, two 
species, of the latter, three— Training of the chorus— Gradual ex- 
tinction of the chorus. 
Audience. — Theatre — Scenic dresses. Admission money — Whence 
supplied — ^Apx^e/n-wv, Oearpwvng, cvn/3o\o v — >Mode of expressing appro- 
bation and displeasure — Whether females formed part of the au- 
dience — Occasion of the erection of the Dionysiac theatre — Its si- 
tuation—Its three principal departments— Form of its outline— 

Aia&tiaTa, Ktpm&ec, povXevrmov, h(pt)(3tK(!>v, npoedpiai — Poi'ticOS— "Opxriorpa, 
9i>/j.eX>j, bpofxoQ, nap65oi, elcobot, o-k^vij, \07eZ0v, TrpOGKtjviov, fiacriXtiog, vrapa.- 
CKrjvia t Kara^Xr}/J.aTa i wepiaKTOi, OeoXoye'iov, a'iiopat, unxavij, yepavog, fipovruov, 
KepavvoffKonelov, CKonij, tetx°£> nvp'iOg, <pcvKiwpiov, h^xiKvkXiov, arpO(pe7ov, hpi- 
G7po<peiov, tKKvKKyiiia, x a P^ vloi KXtfxaKeg, avaTriccrfxa, avXaia, bicpiflag, e7rccrK>']via,dio- 

vudiaKoi rexvirai — Three lands of scenes — Scena versilis, ductilis— 
Echoea— Cases in which the eccyclema was used — Barpaxetov, irpoox. 

vreXov, /uLop/jioXiiKetov, ^opyoveiov, e/j./3ajog t koXtt-wjuci, x tru)V nod>iptj£, cvp/xa, x ilffTt £> 
t[xdrtov, fc'fw/.uf, 6i<p0epa, 7T67tXov, ofnog, /jaaxaXiarnpeg, <jjevaKti, KponfiuXog — 

Arguments for and against the use of the mask — Cothurnus, chiop- 
pine of Shakspeare — Metaphorical use of the words x°p>n<?« and 
xopmla in the Scriptures, and of the word x°p°£ in the Greek eccle- 
siastical writers. 

Chronology of the Greek Drama ....... 85 



CONTENTS. XI 



CHAPTER IV. 



MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 

Peculiar excellence of each of the tragedies of Sophocles— Compa- 
rison of the Eumenides and the (Edipus at Colonos — Schools of 
dramatic art — The essence of tragedy abolished by Euripides — 
Euripides adopted the innovations of Timotheus — Character of his 
writings, and relative merits of his plays — Choephoroi of iEschylus, 
Electra of Sophocles, and Electra of Euripides — Agathon made a 
transition to the newer comedy — Tragedies of the Alexandrine 
literati — Comparison of the old comedy and tragedy — Occasion of 
the use of the parabasis in comedy — Relative merits of the plays of 
Aristophanes — Different opinions as to the peculiarity of the middle 
comedy — Relation between the new comedy and tragedy — Versi- 
fication not essential to comedy — Subordinate species of the new 
comedy — Plays of character and plays of intrigue — Comic of ob- 
servation, the confessedly comic, and the comic of caprice — Mora- 
lity of tragedy different from that of comedy— Remains of the new 
comedy in Greek and in Latin — The Epicurean philosophy suited 
to comedy, the Stoic to tragedy — Restriction of the female charac- 
ters of the drama — Origin and progress of the Roman drama — 
Difference between the Greek and Roman mimes— Roman panto- 
mimes—Two epochs in the tragic literature of the Romans — Tra- 
gedies of Seneca— Inconvenience arising from the presence of the 
chorus in tragedy — The Grecian drama never lost its original de- 
votional character — Resemblance between Aristophanes and Rabe- 
lais — Roman theatres of small extent — Actors held in honor by the 
Greeks, in contempt by the Romans— Original metre of the Greek 
tragedy — Essence of the Greek tragedy — The drama, all poetry, and 
all the fine arts, the results of idol worship — The two distinct parts 
of Attic tragedy, originated in different countries — Apollo, the 
God of the Dorians — Identity between the chorus and the army of 
the Dorians— The introduction of choral poetry into Greece due to 
the Dorian states — Dancing either gymnastic or mimetic — Nomes, 
Paeans, Pyrrhic, Gymnopeedian, and Hyporchematic dances — The 
Hyporcheme alluded to by Homer— The choruses instituted in 



XII CONTENTS. 

honor of Apollo transferred to Bacchus— Derivations of the word 
drfvpanfiog — Correspondence and difference between the lyrical drama 
and the dithyramb— Four significations of the Exarchus— A lyrical 
drama in the Charitesia at Orchomenus — Public recitation by the 
Ionian pa^todoi — The exarchus of the dithyramb a rhapsode — The 
dithyramb, in its two-fold character of recitation and song, the 
source of the dialogue and chorus of tragedy— Recitations by rhap- 
sodes at the Brauronia — The worship of Bacchus the religion of 
the oldest inhabitants of Attica— All concerned in the introduction 
of the Drama into Athens in the time of Thespis and Pisistratus 
were Diacrians, connected with the worship of Bacchus — Thespis 
joined the Ionic element of narration or dialogue to the Doric ly- 
rical drama — Reasons for the encouragement given by Pisistratus. 
to the Rhapsodes — Bentley's arguments to prove that Thespis did 
not write any plays, insufficient — The Satyrical drama a subdivision 
of tragedy — This appears from a derivation of the word rpwywBla — 
Derivation of Kanwbia — Comedy established at Athens in the time 
of Pericles — Plato's, Aristotle's, Hurd's, and Schiller's definitions of 
tragedy — Historical dramas — Tragi-comedy — 'iXaporpaywdiat ; Ei'\w- 
7e(j olkniTatvdpui — Comedy of caricature, of criticism, and of cha- 
racter—Table of dramatic classification — Evidences of the aristocra- 
tical spirit of iEschylus — Distinction between the iEsychylean tra- 
gedy and the Homeric epos — The Rhesus, attributed to Euripides, 
was probably the first of the plays of Sophocles — Character and 
writings of iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides — Epicharmus, Cra- 
tinus, Phrynichus the comedian, Aristophanes, Menander, Diphilus 
— The Dionysian festivals — Duties of the choragus — Distinction 
between the manner of representation of the ancient and modern 
drama — Epic, lyric, and dramatic poetry — Essence of Tragedy and 
Comedy- -Study of the antiques — Unities of action, time, and 
place \ 140 

CHAPTER V. 

aristotle's treatise on poetry. 

Introduction — Poetry a species of imitation — Rhythm, words, and 
melody, the means of imitation — The actions of men, the objects of 
imitation— Different manner of imitation, either in narration, or in 



CONTENTS. Xiii 

action — Origin of poetry from two causes, each of them natural — 
Division of poetry into two kinds, the serious and the ludicrous — 
Of poets into two classes — Progress of tragedy — Object and pro- 
gress of comedy — Comparison of epic and tragic poetry — Definition 
of tragedy— Six parts of tragedy with respect to quality, two relat- 
ing to the means, one to the manner, and three to the object of 
imitalion — Placed, in respect of relative importance, thus: Fable, 
manners, sentiments, diction, music, decoration — Of the fable, and 
its construction — The action must be complete, and have a cer- 
tain magnitude — Unity of the fable— Different provinces of the 
Poet and the Historian— Episodic fables the worst — Fables simple 
or complicated— Parts of the fable, viz. prologue, episode, exode, 
and chorus — The chorus divided into parode, stasimon, and com- 
mos — What catastrophe, and what character best for tragedy — Ca- 
tastrophe should be single, and that unhappy — Terror and pity to be 
excited by the action, and not by the decoration— Of disastrous in- 
cidents and their proper management — Four things requisite with 
respect to the manners — Five kinds of discoveries — Directions to 
the poet, with respect to the plan and composition of his tragedy 
— Complication and development of the plot— Four kinds of trage- 
dies— Too great extent of plan to be avoided— Of the chorus — Of 
the sentiments and diction — The parts of diction, viz. the letter, 
the syllable, the conjunction, the noun, the verb, the article, the 
case, the discourse — Of words, single, double, triple, quadruple, &c. 
Also of words, common, foreign, metaphorical, ornamental, in- 
vented, extended, contracted, altered — Of the terminations of nouns 
— The excellence of diction consists in being perspicuous without 
being mean— Double words best suited to dithyrambic poetry, fo- 
reign to heroic, metaphorical to iambic — Points of agreement and 
difference between the epic poem and tragedy — Epic narration 
should be dramatic and imitative — The epic admits the wonderful 
more easily, and in a greater degree than tragedy — Sources from 
which critical objections, and the answers to them, may be drawn 
— The former, five in number, the latter, twelve — Of the supe- 
riority of tragic to epic poetry 205 



XIV CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

GREEK PROSODY— GREEK METRES. 

Prosody. — A short or doubtful vowel before two consonants — A short 
vowel sometimes made long before a single consonant — The first of 
three short syllables made long in Heroic verse — A vowel not ne- 
cessarily short before another — Apostrophe—Hiatus — Crasis — Syn- 
ecphonesis — Accent — Caesura — Ictus — Punctuation — Compound 
words — Of *, /, v, in the penultimate— Penultima of tenses of verbs 
— Penultima of nouns and adjectives increasing in the genitive — 
Quantity of the last syllable. 

Metres. Metre — Rhythm — Verse— Scanning — Table of feet — Iso- 
chronous feet— General rule for ascertaining the species of verse in 
which a metre is synonimous with a syzygy — Difference between a 
syzygy and a dipodia — Of verses, acatalectic, catalectic, &c. &c. — 
k<7>\ov, KOjujua, hovSkwXov fiov6crrppo<pov, &c. — Penthemimer, hepthemimer, 
hemiholius — Two kinds of caesura — Of the former, three species, 
of the latter, four — Synapheia — Ictus — Arsis, thesis — Opinions of 
Dawes and Dunbar with respect to the position of the ictus in 
iambic, trochaic, and anapaestic verse — Anacrusis — Nine principal 
species of metre —Iambic metre — Pour forms of the senarius — Feet 
admitted into the tragic senarius— Of the anapaest of the first foot, 
and of the proper name — Scale of the iambic trimeter acatalectic' — 
Process by which Porson infers the inadmissibility of an anapaest 
beyond the first foot— Reason for the exclusion of anapaests from 
the third, and of dactyls from the fifth foot — Number of trisyllabic 
feet admitted — Species of words excluded from a senarius — Porson's 
rule with regard to the second and third feet, and the third and 
fourth feet. — Principal cassuras of the trimeter, and species of each — 
Quasi cssura— Caesural pause — Defined by Porson, Elmsley, and 
Gaisford — Three apparent exceptions to this canon — Three cases 
only in which the fifth foot may be a spondee — Varieties of each case 
— Hermann's three exceptions to Porson's caesural pause — Species 
of verse attributed to Castorion — Hermann opposes Porson's canons 
with respect to the second and third, and third and fourth feet, and 
with respect to the non-omission of the augment— Porson's canon 



CONTENTS. XV 

with respect to the particles n and yt — Extended — Difference be- 
tween Iambic and Trochaic numbers according to Hermann- 
Other species of Iambic verse — The comic trimeter — Its true con- 
stitution first discovered by Dawes — Correspondency between the 
tragic trimeter and the trochaic tetrameter catalectic — Iambic te- 
trameter catalectic — Two reasons assigned by Elmsley for the small 

number Of Varieties Of this Verse — Evpnri5etov TecraapeaKaideKaavWafiov 

— Dimeter iambics — Hipponactean trimeter— Iambic tetrameter 
acatalectic — Satiric trimeter — Examples — Trochaic metre — Scale of 
the trochaic tetrameter catalectic — Rule with regard to the dactyl 
of the proper name — A spondee or anapaest in the sixth place 
cannot be followed by a tribrach in the seventh — Two peculiarities 
of the trochaic senarian — Nicety of structure discovered by Porson 
—Rule with regard to the sixth foot similar to that regarding the 
caesural pause— Five cases in which the sixth foot may be a spondee 
— The law concerning the caesural pause in the iambic trimeter to 
be ascribed to this origin — Limitation of Porson's canon with re- 
spect to the second foot — Resolutions of long syllables more fre- 
quent in the first foot of each dipodia— The comic tetrameter tro- 
chaic—Other varieties of trochaic verse — The ictus in trochaic 
verse — Anapccstic metre — Nature and origin of anapaestic verse — 
Two kinds of anapaestic verse — Scales of the anapaestic dimeter 
acatalectic, of the paroemiac, and of the anapaestic base— Legitimate 
and illegitimate systems— Niceties to be observed in the structure 
of anapaestic verse — The synapheia first observed by Bentley— 
Hiatus— Four circumstances excuse it—Observations with regard 
to the anapaestic base, and the paroemiac— Observation of Elmsley 
— Antistrophic systems— The illegitimate systems differ from the 
legitimate in five respects— The Aristophanean proceleusmatic te- 
trameter — Spondiac verses — The laws of dimeter anapeestics gene- 
rally observed by comic writers— The anapaestic tetrameter catalectic 
— Logaoedic anapaestics— Other varieties of anapaestic verse Spe- 
cimen of an anapaestic system— The ictus in anapaestic verse ac> 
cording to Dawes, Tate, and Dunbar— Dactylic metre— Dactylic 
rhythm termed JVov, trochaic Zitz\£.<jioy — The catalexis of dactylics is 
two-fold— Acatalectic verses, except in systems, end with dactyls- 
Various species of dactylics — Niceties in the structure of the elegiac 
pentameter— The heroic hexameter— Four caesuras in the heroic- 
Bucolic hexameters— The Hexameter fuiov§ os— Logacedics— iEolics 



XVI CONTENTS. 

— Choriambic metre — The catalexis of choriambic verse is various — 
Various species of choriambic verse — Glyconic polyschematistic — 
Choriambic verses sometimes begin with an anacrusis— Choriambics 
with a base — The Pherecratean — The Glyconic— Horace always 
puts a spondee in the base, and has neglected the caesura only once— 
The choriambic polyschematist — The epichoriambic — The sapphic, 
a species of epichoriambic — Antispastic metre — Five varieties of the 
antispast — Twenty varieties of the pure antispastic monometer 
acatalectic — Impure antispasts — Hermann's limitation of antispastic 
numbers — Various species of dochmiacs — Dochmiacs usually joined 
in systems— Thirty-two variations of the dochmius — Dochmiacs with 
a dissyllabic anacrusis — Dochmiacs often augmented at the begin- 
ning — The paracataloge— Ionic a majore — Its constitution — The 
av<xx\a<Tis— The epionic a majore — The catalexis of an ionic— Her- 
mann's views with respect to the ionic a majore — Various species 
of the ionic a majore— Latin writers who used this metre — Ionic a 
minore — Its constitution — The epionic a minore — Hermann's views 
— The Ma.yCKa.Tn — The iEolic and Ionic lyrics — Various species of 
ionics a minore — Anacreontic verse — Galliambic verse — P&onic 
metre— Its constitution— When most perfect — When most harmo- 
nious — Its catalexis — Hermann differs from those who refer cretic 
and bacchiac numbers to pseonics — Cretics— Hermann's views on 
cretic numbers — His reasons for distinguishing between them and 
paeonics— The catalexis of cretic verses — Systems of dimeter cre- 
tics— Various species of cretics — Cretics with an iambic anacrusis, 
not to be confounded with dochmiacs preceded by an iambus — Cre- 
tics used by the Roman dramatists — Bacchiacs— Bacchiac numbers, 
referred by the ancient metricians to paeonic, by Hermann to tro- 
chaic, are in reality spondiac with an iambic anacrusis — Various 
species of bacchiacs — Used frequently by the Roman dramatists — 
Versus prosodiacus — Polyschematistic verses — Various species — Ver- 
sus asynarteti — Various species — Instances from Horace — Versus 
periodicus — Saturnian verse — Concrete numbers — Difference be- 
tween a system and a strophe — Four kinds of strophes — Three spe- 
cies of the fourth kind — Poems divided into two kinds, viz. netrat 
arlxov, and Kara. avir^fAo. ; two species, of the former, six species of 
the latter — Various subdivisions— Structure of the parabasis— Great 
diversity in its use — Agreement and difference between the parodus 
and stasimum— -A quadruple division of the chorus— Three ways 



CONTENTS. XVH 

of collecting what the distribution of the chorus was in each pas- 
sage—Other songs of the chorus— Canon generally observed by 
iEschylus and Sophocles, more accurately by Euripides — Dawes's 
three canons — Porson's canons — Dunbar explains both by the ictus 
— Dunbar's conclusions, with respect to iambic, trochaic, and ana- 
paestic verse — On syllabic quantity, and on its differences in heroic 
and dramatic verse — These differences seen from a comparison of 
Aristophanes and Homer — Comparison of syllabic quantity in co- 
medy and tragedy— Cause of many mistakes about syllabic quan- 
tity ............ 256 

CHAPTER VII. 

A 

ANALYSIS OF HERMANN'S TREATISE ON THE DOCTRINE OF 

y 

METRES, PORSON'S PREFACE TO THE HECUBA, 
AND SUPPLEMENT. 

The Poetry of the Greeks adapted either to singing or recitation— 
Our acquaintance with the doctrine of rhythm, and the science of 
modulation very imperfect — The doctrine of numbers examined 
into by Bentley, Brunck, Hermann, Porson, Gaisford, and Seidler 
—Primary basis of Greek versification according to Hermann — 
Metre, numbers, symmetry, order — The law of numbers, objective, 
not subjective ; formal, not material ; innate, not empirical — De- 
finitions of numbers and of symmetry — Inferences deduced from 
the definition of numbers — Two kinds of numbers— Ictus, arsis, 
thesis, anacrusis — Numbers limited or unlimited — Orders sim- 
ple or periodic — First arsis of periodic orders stronger than 
every following arsis — That arsis which is stronger than the 
preceding is a new absolute cause, and not produced from a 
preceding arsis — Concrete numbers — The times of orders which 
are in thesis must all be equal, as also the time of the anacrusis — 
Measure, the doubtful measure, the disproportionate measure — 
The permutation of numbers effected in five ways— A verse, xu\a f 
xoiAfjMTct, asynartete verses — Hermann's two objections to the me- 
trical nomenclature of the grammarians — The epiploke — Its three 
principal species— Catalexis, aTtoQtru — A system, ayayr, — A three- 
fold conjunction of musical with metrical numbers — Three instru- 
ments by which the rhythm of the words is adapted to the rhythm 
of the verse— Discussion of the caesura—The syllable of doubtful 



XV111 CONTENTS. 

quantity—The substitution of short syllables for long, or conversely, 
can be effected in only two places— Illustrations of these principles- 
Prosody comprises the convenience of the metre, accentuation of 
words, intension of the voice, and punctuation — The convenience 
of the metre lies in elongation and correption of syllables, hiatus, 
elision, crasis, and synizesis— Observations on each of these — 
Simple metres — Three kinds of numbers — Hare arsis is seldom 
employed — A base consists of a double arsis — Numbers composed 
of equal times occur rarely — Three kinds of numbers of unequal 
times — Five species of each—Mixed and compound metres— Mix- 
ture twofold — Composition two-fold — Reasons for considering 
iambic and trochaic verse to be identical — Poison's preface to the 
Hecuba—His four canons relating to grammar and orthography — 
Observations in defence of each— Hermann dissents from the three 
last — The first part of the preface relates to grammar and ortho- 
graphy, the second to versification — Emendation of eleven iambic 
verses, in which an anapaest occurs in the third place— Grammatical 
rules involved in these emendations — Porson's argument for the 
exclusion of the anapaest from the third and fifth places of the 
senary, deduced from the license of admitting an anapaestic proper 
name into any seat — Hermann objects to the conclusiveness of 
Porson's argument for the exclusion of the anapaest from the fifth 
seat of the senary, without essentially impugning his doctrine — 
He objects on two grounds — In this part of his metrical theory he 
differs from Porson in three important respects— His own doctrine 
with regard to the anapaest — His arguments for the omission of the 
augment, in opposition to Porson's canon — Conditions with respect 
to the anapaest of the proper name — Examples of the extension of 
the anapaest to other cases besides proper names — Porson's three 
canons for the arrangement of the choric systems — Hermann's 
animadversions thereon — Matthiae charges Hermann with a viola- 
tion of his own rule— Matthias disapproves of a rule of emendation 
recommended by Porson— Porson's observations on the license 
which tragic writers allowed themselves in the use of dialects — 
Hermann lays down four canons for our guidance in this matter- 
General principle on which those canons are founded — Illustrations 
of the fourth canon . 351 



CONTEXTS. XIX 



CHAPTER VIII. 

EXCERPTA CRITIC A. 

I. Dawes' Eleven Canons : with Tate's Notes. 

IT. Por son's Critical Canons. 

III. Blomfield's Canons and Remarks. 

IV. Monk's Canons and Remarks. 

V. Canons and Remarks collected from Elmsley, Porson-, Dawes, 

Matthife, Major, &c. 

VI. A sketch of the principal usages of the* middle voice of the 

Greek verb, when its signification is strictly observed. 

VII. Tract on the Greek Dialects from the Classical Journal. 

Haupt on the Dialect of the Tragedians . 407 



CHAPTER IX. 
Examination Papers 504 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



CHAPTER I. 

EXTRACTS FROM BENTLEy's DISSERTATION ON PHALARIS. 

1 . Aristotle tells us that the original metre of tragedy was 
the Tetrameter Trochaic, the Trochaic foot being more pro- 
per for dancing. The Iambic was adapted to business 
rather than dancing, and to dialogue rather than singing ; 
the same reason holds for the original metre of comedy, 
which at first was nothing but a song performed by a chorus 
dancing to a pipe. 

2. Tragedy and Comedy originally were nothing but ex- 
temporal diversions, neither published, preserved, nor writ- 
ten (the Dithyrambic Hymn and Satyric chorus being the 
source of tragedy, and the Phallic song the source of 
comedy) ; this Aristotle and Maximus Tyrius expressly 
declare ; and Donatus says, that Thespis was the first 
who wrote his plays, though even this is opposed by Bentley. 

3. This, perhaps, may be the true reason why most of 
those who have spoken of the origin of comedy make no 
mention of Susarion, but ascribe the invention of it to 
Epicharmu s, who was the first author of written comedy ; 

B 



^ THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

this is testified by Theocritus, Themistius, Suidas, (a lexi- 
cographer who lived A.D. 975,) Solinus and Donatus. 
Aristotle, while he hints at Susarion's pretences, really de- 
clares in favour of Epicharmus ; his words are : — " the 
pretenders to the invention of comedy are the Megarenses, 
both those near Attica, and those in Sicily ; for Epicharmus 
was of that place, who is much older than Chionides and 
Magnes." When he mentions the Megarenses near Attica, 
he hints at Susarion, who was born at that Megara, but by 
passing him over without a name, he plainly signifies, that 
his claim was of no great weight ; he would probably allow 
him to be the author of some extemporal farces, that may 
be called the first rudiments of comedy. 

4. Written comedy is more recent than tragedy ; for 
Epicharmus, its author, was contemporary with Hiero, king 
of Syracuse, and both are placed by the Arundel marble in 
01. 77.1 — whereas Thespis, generally supposed the inventor 
of tragedy, lived about Olymp. 61, and Phrynicus, his 
pupil, and probably the first author of written tragedy, 
gained his first victory. Olymp. 67. To this Horace agrees. 
(A. P. 281.) " Successit vetus his comoedia" — his scil. 
Satyris et tragcedise — and Donatus says that tragedy is 
senior to comedy both in the subject of it, and the time of 
its invention. Susarion, however, the author of unwritten 
comedy, preceded Thespis, living 562 B.C. or in Olym. 54, 
whereas Thespis lived 535 B.C. Olymp. 61, and the. first 
rudiments of tragedy, far from being serious, were full of 
fun, frolic and raillery, and were more like comedy than 
tragedy. 

5. Rule for converting the date in Olympiads to the year 
B.C. — Multiply the Olympiad which precedes the given one, 
by four ; to the product add a number one less than the 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 3 

current year of the given Olympiad, subtract the result 
from 776, (the epoch from whence the first Olympiad is 
reckoned,) and the remainder will be the year B.C. required : 
thus iEschylus was born 01. 63.4. ..62 x 4 + 3=251 . .776- 
251 = 525. B.C. 

6. Phalaris died seventy-eight years before the seventy- 
seventh Olympiad, the date assigned to Epicharmus by the 
marble ; and even granting that Epicharmus lived ninety- 
seven years, and died in that Olympiad, he would be but 
eighteen years old at the death of Phalaris ; if Epicharmus 
then was the first writer of comedy, it is clear that Phalaris 
could not borrow an Iambic from the stage. 

7. Phormis (which is the true name, and not Phormus) 
is also too young for Phalaris to quote from ; for he was 
tutor to Greta's children, and came to great honor in the 
service of Gelo and of Hiero after him. 

8. On the whole, it is manifest, that the authorities for 
Epicharmus are more, and greater, than those for Susarion; 
that the plays of Susarion were extemporal, or if pub- 
lished, were more probably in tetrametres and other cho- 
rical measures, fit for dances and songs, than in Iambics. 

9. It is true, that Diomedes Scholasticus, in his com- 
mentary on Dionysius Thrax, expressly says, that Susarion 
was the beginner of comedy in verse, and quotes five Iambic 
verses, as though from a play of his. 

Objection answered — first, Diomedes stands alone in this 
assertion ; second, he is a man of no great esteem ; third, 
it is a mere conjecture of his own, as he lived many hun- 
dred years after the thing he speaks of ; fourth, these five 
Iambics are spoken in the person of Susarion, which proves 
that they are no part of a play, for when the poet in his 
own name would speak to the spectators, he makes use of 



4 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

the chorus for that purpose, and it is called a Trapafiamg 
(which frequently occurs in Aristophanes) ; now, there is 
not one instance in which the chorus speaks to the audience 
in Iambics, (though to the actor it sometimes does,) but 
always in anapaests or tetrametres ; fifth, if Susarion had 
written a play, it could not have been unknown to Aristotle, 
who particularly applied himself to the history of the 
stage, and wrote a treatise of the AidaaKaXiai, an account of 
the names, and the times, and the authors of all the plays 
that ever were acted, and yet attributes the invention of 
comedy to the Sicilians long after Susarion. If these verses 
then were Susarion's, they were made on some other occa- 
sion, and not for the stage. 

10. The Ohronicon Marmoreum, which is at Oxford, has 
a passage in a worn and broken condition, which Bentley 
thus fills up 'A^>' ov lv cnri'waiQ KWfiipSiai EcpopiOrjcrav vtto tCov 
iKapdwv ivpovTOC Souo-a/Hwvoe, Kat aOXov IriOrj TrpwTOv, 
l(r%adwv apai^oq. kcli 6'ivov afjKpopevg. From this it appears 
that comedies were carried in carts by the Icarians, 
Susarion being the inventor, and the prize was first pro- 
posed, a basket of figs, and a small vessel of wine. Horace 
also testifies, that in the beginning plays were carried about 
in carts — 

" Ignotum Tragicse genus invenisse Camcenae 

Dicitur, et plaustris vexisse Poemata Thespis." A. P. 275. 

11. From a passage of Plutarch also, it appears that 
the vessel of wine and basket of figs were the prize for 
comedy, and the goat the prize for tragedy; we cannot 
then suppose that Susarion made regular and finished 
comedies, when he contended for such sorry prizes. These 
were afterwards laid aside, and to carry the day from the 
rival poets was an honor not much inferior to that of a 
victory at Olympia, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 5 

12. A brief account of the Arundelian marbles may be 
useful. They were so called from Thomas Howard, Earl 
of Arundel, who lived in the time of James and Charles 
the First, and employed men of learning, particularly Mr. 
Petty, to explore the ruins of Greece and Asia-Minor, for 
the purpose of collecting monuments illustrative of the arts 
and history of Ancient Greece and Rome. Mr. Petty pro- 
cured above two hundred relics of antiquity, among which 
were those denominated after their noble collector : they 
arrived in England in 1627; the inscriptions were inserted 
in the wall of the garden at the back of Arundel House, 
in the Strand, where they were examined by Selden, who 
succeeded in decyphering twenty-nine of the Greek and 
ten of the Latin inscriptions, which in the following year 
he published, under the title of " Marmora Arundelliana." 
During the civil wars, the mansion was abandoned to the 
parliament, who suffered the marbles to be plundered and 
defaced, not more than half escaping destruction ; the re- 
mainder were presented by Henry Howard, Duke of Nor- 
folk, grandson of the collector, to the University of Oxford. 
Humphrey Prideaux, afterwards Dean of Norwich, pub- 
lished the whole collection in 1676; they were again re- 
printed by Maittaire in 1 732, and again by Dr. Chandler in 
1763. Some of these inscriptions record treaties and public 
contracts ; others are memorials of the gratitude of the 
State to patriotic individuals, but by far the greatest num- 
ber are sepulchral and entirely of a private nature. One 
has deservedly attracted more notice than the rest, it is 
called the Chronicon Marmoreum, or Parian Chronicle, 
because it is a chronological table of events, on marble, 
and appears to have been made in the Island of Paros. 
This stone was in Selden s time two feet seven inches in 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



height, and six feet six inches in breadth, containing ninety- 
three lines, arranged in two columns : it contained a chro- 
nological account of the principal events in Grecian, and 
particularly Athenian history, during a period of 1318 
years, from the reign of Oecrops to the Archonship of 
Diognatus, B.C. 264 ; but had not Selden transcribed it 
with peculiar care, much of it would have been lost, for no 
less than thirty-one out of seventy -nine epochs, legible on 
it in his time, have been knocked off, for the purpose, it is 
said, of repairing a fire-place ; so that it now terminates 
with the Archonship of Diotimus, B.C. 354, about ninety 
years earlier than the period to which it originally extended. 
The epochs are all dated retrospectively from the Archon- 
ship of Diognatus, 264 B.C. and briefly record the most 
important events, in the order in which they took place. 

13. Sannyrio is not the same as Susarion, for Sannyrion 
in his Danae, burlesqued a verse of Euripides' Orestes, 
which was acted Olymp. 92-4 ; he must, therefore, have lived 
between Olympiads 92 and 95, but Susarion in Olymp. 54. 

14. There are ten testimonies in favor of Thespis being 
the inventor of tragedy : — First, the Arundel marble, which 
was made Olymp. 129, in the time of Ptolemy Philadel- 
phus, above 260 B.C. ; second, the Epigrammatist Dios- 
corides, who, whilst he gives JEschylus the honor of im- 
proving tragedy, (^ui^wo-e, he exalted its style by vwcr/uiiXe vra 
ypafXfiaTa, new-carved words,) attributes evptjuia, the in- 
vention of it to Thespis ; and in another epigram says, 
Qiawig TpayLKrjv aviirXaaE irpCjrog aoiSrjv, BaK\og ort rpirbv 
KarayoL xopbv — by the three choruses of Bacchus, Dios- 
corides means the Trina Dionysia, the three festivals of 
Bacchus, the Aiovvcna — ra fear' aypovg, to, Iv Ai/xvaig, ra 
KaT acrrv, at which times, that answer to January, March, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



7 



and April, both comedies and tragedies were acted ; (af- 
terwards they added these diversions to the II a vaOrivata^ 
which fell out in the month of August, but because this 
last was an innovation after Thespis's time, the poet takes 
no notice of it) — or the triple chorus may mean the tragic, 
comic, and cyclian chorus. Third, Horace in A. P. 275, 
before quoted. Fourth, the old Scholiast on Horace, who 
tells us that Thespis was the first inventor of tragedy. 
Fifth, Plutarch, " that Thespis gave the rise to the very 
rudiments of tragedy ." Sixth, Clemens of Alexandria, 
who makes " Thespis the contriver of tragedy, as Susarion 
was of comedy. Seventh, Athenseus, who says, "that both 
comedy and tragedy were found out at Icarus, in Attica, for 
Thespis was born there ;" and again, that, " the ancient 
poets, Thespis, Pratinas, Carcinus and Phrynicus, were 
called 'OjO^anfcot, dancers, because they not only used 
dancing so much in the choruses of their plays, but were 
common dancing-masters, teaching any one that wished to 
learn." Now, if we compare with this what Aristotle says, 
that tragedy in its infancy was opxrjaTiKojr^pa^ more taken 
up with dances than afterwards, it will be plain, that 
Athenseus knew no ancienter tragedian than Thespis, for if 
he had, it had been to his purpose to name him. Eighth, 
Suidas says that, " Phrynicus was scholar to Thespis, who 
first introduced tragedy ;"" ninth, and Donatus says, " if 
we search into antiquity, we shall find that Thespis first in- 
vented it." Tenth, Plato tells us that it was the universal 
opinion in his time, that tragedy began with Thespis or 
Phrynichus, and though he himself was of a different sen- 
timent, yet he proposes his own opinion as a paradox, and 
it is one, in which none of those mentioned above (all of 
whom followed him) agreed. 



8 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

15. The only person that can contest the honor of being 
the inventor of tragedy with Thespis, is Epigenes the 
Sicyonian ; but Suiclas is the only witness in his favor, and 
he only tells us a hearsay, which he himself does not seem 
to believe. " Thespis," says he, " is reckoned the sixteenth 
tragic poet after Epigenes, some say he was second after 
him, and others, the very first of all." The Epigenes men- 
tioned by Athenseus was a comic poet, and quite a different 
person. 

16. Bentley goes still further, and holds, that even Thes- 
pis published nothing in writing ; against this opinion there' 
are five objections. First, the Arundel marble mentions 
the "AAfc)j<7nc of Thespis ; Julius Pollux, his HzvOtvg, and 
Suiclas four or five more ; and Plutarch, with Clemens 
Alexandrinus, produce some of his verses. The founda- 
tion of Bentley's answer to these is, that, on the authority 
of Aristoxenus, the musician, Heraclides Ponticus, his fel- 
low pupil to Aristotle, put forth his own tragedies in Thes- 
pis's name ; now before the date of this forgery of Hera- 
clides, we have no mention of any of Thespis's remains. 
Aristotle speaks of the origin, progress, and perfection of 
tragedy ; criticises the fables of the first writers, and yet 
does not mention any piece of Thespis. But first, the 
Arundel marble mentions his "AXicJicrrtc — (1) this is most 
uncertain, as the word is now wholly defaced. (2.) The 
names of plays are never set down in the marble, not even 
those of iEschylus, Sophocles, or Euripides. (3.) Suidas 
tells us that Phrynicus was the first that made women the 
subject of tragedy, his master, Thespis, having introduced 
only men — there could be, therefore, no play of Thespis 
with the title of Alcestis. 

From Zenobius, Suidas, Ohameeleon, and Plutarch, it 
appears, that at first the subject of all the plays was Bac- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 9 

chus himself, with his company of satyrs, on which account 
those plays were called ^arvpuca, but afterwards the poets 
went off to fables and histories, which gave occasion to the 
saying, "this is nothing to Bacchus," ovSlv wpog Alovvcrov ; 
and Plutarch tells us that Phryniehus first introduced 
serious tragedy; hence, it is evident, that the true Thespis's 
plays were all satyrical (i. <?.), the plot of them was the story 
of Bacchus, the chorus consisted of satyrs, and the argu- 
ment was merry ; even after the time of Thespis, the serious 
tragedy came on so slowly, that of fifty plays of Pratinas, 
who was in the next generation after Thespis, thirty-two 
are said to have been satyrical. Now, let us apply this 
observation to the fragments ascribed to Thespis. Second, 
Julius Pollux quotes a verse out of Thespis's Pentheus ; 
and third, Suidas mentions the titles of others of his plays, 
as 3>opj3ac, and 'hpeig, and 'Hifleoi, but these titles show 
that they cannot be satyrical plays, and consequently not 
Thespis's, who made none but of that sort. The YlzvOtvg 
seems to promise fairest to be satyrical, but the old poets 
never brought the satyrs into the story of Pentheus. 
Fourth, Plutarch quotes a fragment from Thespis, which 
he says differs not from that saying of Plato, " that the 
Deity is situate remote from all pleasure and pain • 11 truly 
it differs not at all, and no other proof is necessary that it 
could not belong to a satyrical ludicrous play, such as all 
Thespis's were. This is not the language of Bacchus and 
his satyrs, nay, it is too high and philosophical a strain 
even for Thespis himself; but the thought, as Plutarch 
himself tells us, was Plato's, and to whom then should the 
fragment belong, but to Heraclides, the counterfeit of 
Thespis, who was at first a scholar of Plato's, and might 
borrow the notion from his old master. Fifth, Clemens 



10 THfi GRECIAN DRAMA, ' 

Alexandrinus quotes a fragment from Thespis, which con- 
tains four artificial words, which comprehend exactly the 
twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet ; now if these 
twenty-four letters were not all invented in Thespis's time, 
this cannot be a genuine fragment of his ; but the long 
vowels, double letters, and aspirates were not introduced 
into the alphabet, until a long time after the use of 
writing, even of writing books, and the alphabet clearly 
was not completed until after the death of Thespis, for 
Simonides, Epicharmus, or both, invented some of the let- 
ters, and Epicharmus could not be above twenty-seven 
years old, nor Simonides above sixteen, in 61st Olympiad, 
which is the latest period of Thespis : this passage is, 
therefore, probably taken from one of the spurious plays, 
fathered on Thespis by Heraclides, and similarly Hera- 
clides' forgeries imposed on Pollux, Suidas, and Plutarch. 

1 7. The age of Thespis is proved, first, from the Arun- 
del marble ; second, from the testimony of Suidas ; third, 
from the age of Phrynicus, his pupil. 

18. The Arundel marble deserves credit, because its 
author is the most ancient writer that speaks of the age of 
Thespis, most accurate in his performance, most curious 
into the history of poetry and the stage ; and we have the 
original stone among us, so that his numbers are genuine, 
and not liable to be altered (as books are) by the negli- 
gence or fraud of transcribers. The year in which Thespis 
invented tragedy cannot be now known from the marble, 
as the numbers are effaced, but it may be known - from the 
preceding and following epochs : the preceding epoch is 
Cyrus's victory over Croesus, and the taking of Sardis, 
Olymp. 59.1 — the following is the beginning of Darius's 
reign, Olymp. 65.1— tragedy, therefore, was invented by 
Thespis between the Olympiads 59 .1, and 65,1, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



11 



19. This is confirmed by Suidas, who says that Thespis 
made his first play, Olymp. 61, which falls in between the 
two epochs before and after Thespis. 

20. The age of Phrynichus, his pupil, confirms that of 
Thespis. Now, the age of Phrynicus may be deduced 
from his play Ml\i)tov clXucrtg ; the taking of Miletus was 
in Olymp. 70, Phrynichus then must have been alive after 
Olymp. 70. Again, his Phcenissae (from which JEschylus 
borrowed his Persee, published four years after it) was 
written on the defeat of Xerxes, which took place Olymp. 
75.1 : in 75.4, he gained the victory by a play, to which 
Themistocles was Ohoragus, which, therefore, most pro- 
bably was the Phcenissse ; Suidas tells us he got his first 
victory Olymp. 67, which gives thirty-six years between his 
first and last, a reasonable time, and corresponds with 
Olymp. 61, for Thespis, allowing about twenty-five years 
between master and scholar ; all these coincidences place 
Thespis about Olymp. 61. 

21. But it has been thought that there were two Phry- 
nichuses, both tragic poets ; it is necessary to examine this 
point, else the argument for the age of Thespis, from the 
date of the Phcenissae, will be very lame, as it may be said 
that the author of the Phcenissse was not the Phrynicus 
who was Thespis's scholar. The only pretence for asserting 
two tragic poets of that name, is a passage of Suidas, who, 
after he had named Phrynichus, the son of Polyphraclmon, 
or Minyras, or Chorocles, the scholar of Thespis, and that 
his tragedies are nine, giving their titles ; under a new 
head, gives Phrynichus, son of Melanthas, an Athenian 
tragedian, and mentions three of his plays different from 
the nine. This latter place is taken word for word from 
the Scholiast on Aristophanes, who adds, that the same 



12 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

man made the tragedy called "the taking of Miletus." 
Now, in answer to this, it may be observed, that the dif- 
ferent fathers assigned to the two is an argument of small 
force, for we see that one of them had three fathers as- 
signed to him, so uncertain was the tradition about the 
name of the father ; some authors, therefore, might relate 
that his father was Melanthas, and yet mean the very same 
Phrynichus, who, according to others, was son of Poly- 
phradmon : the argument from the different plays assigned 
to the two is still weaker, for the whole twelve mentioned 
in Suidas might belong to the same Phrynichus ; he says, 
indeed, Phrynicus, son of Polyphradmon, wrote nine plays, 
because the author he here copies from knew of no more ; 
but there might be more, though he did not hear of them, 
as we see there really were two — " The Taking of Miletus 
and the Pho^niss?e, ,, not mentioned by Suidas. Having 
shown on what slight ground the tradition about two tra- 
gedian Phrynichuses is built, it may be observed, that all 
the authors who speak of the play called " The Capture of 
Miletus," or who quote Phrynichus on other occasions, 
merely style him Phrynichus the tragedian, without adding 
6 vsojTspog the younger, as all, or at least some would have 
done, if this person had not been the famous Phrynichus, 
Thespis's scholar; besides, the very Scholiast on Aristo- 
phanes, and Suidas, the sole authorities for this opinion, do 
in other places, plainly declare, there was but one. There 
were four Phrynichuses in all, says the Scholiast : 

1. Phrynichus, son of Polyphradmon, the tragic poet. 

2. Phrynichus, son of Ohorocles, an actor of tragedies. 

3. Phrynichus, son of Eunomides, the comic poet. 

4. Phrynichus, the Athenian General, who was engaged 
in a plot against the government. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 13 

From this catalogue, it appears there was but one 
tragic poet of the name ; and it is no wonder, if in lex- 
icons and scholia, compiled out of several authors, there 
be several things inconsistent with one another. Thus, in 
another place, the Scholiast and Suidas make Phrynichus, 
the general, to be the same with the comic poet ; and 
iElian makes him the same with the tragic poet, adding, 
that in his tragedy livppixai, he so pleased the people with 
the warlike songs and dances of his chorus, that they chose 
him as a fit person to make a general ; but the general was 
stabbed at Athens, Olymp. 92.2, which is too late for the 
tragedian, who began to make plays, 01. 67, from which 
till 01. 92.2, there are one hundred and two years ; and 
even from his Phcenissse, 01. 75.4, the last time we hear of 
him, there are sixty-six years to the death of Phrynichus, 
the general ; and it is too early for the comedian, for we 
find him alive five years after, contending with Aristophanes 
in 01. 93.3. 

Again, from the Vespse of Aristophanes, it appears there 
was but one Phrynichus, a tragic poet ; it is there said, 
that the old men at Athens used to sing the old songs of 
Phrynichus, ap\aiopiXy\(nZwvo(ppvvi\y)paTa, a coined word, 
in which aiduvo relates to the Phcenissa?, (the Sidonians,) a 
play of Phrynichus; here we see the author of the Phcenissse 
(whom they suppose to be the latter Phrynichus) is meant 
by Aristophanes ; but he also must have meant here the 
Scholar of Thespis, from the words juIXij apxala, " ancient 
songs 1 ' — ancient, because that Phrynichus was the second, 
or as some thought, the first author of tragedy; and " songs, 11 
because he was celebrated for his songs and tunes ; hence 
it appears, they were one and the same. The Scholiast 
says that Phrynichus, son of Polyphrachnon, had a mighty 



H THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

name for making songs, and he, according to Suldas, was 
Thespis's scholar ; it is a problem of Aristotle, " why did 
Phrynichus make more songs than any tragedian nowa- 
days?" And he answers it — "Because at that time the songs 
sung by the chorus were many more than the verses spoken 
by the actors V — Does not Aristotle's very question imply 
that there was but one Phrynichus, a tragic poet ? 

Finally, the very passage in Aristophanes, where the 
Scholiast, and Suidas from him, tell us of this (supposed 
second) Phrynichus, son of Melanthas, concerns the one 
and true Phrynichus, the scholar of Thespis. It has been 
already stated from Athenseus and Aristotle, that the an- 
cient poets, Thespis, Pratinas, Carcinus, and Phrynichus, 
were called opx^artKol, dancers ; now, in this passage, an 
old man is introduced as dancing, and his dancing is com- 
pared to that of Thespis and Phrynichus : the Phrynichus, 
therefore, here spoken of by Aristophanes, was, as well as 
Thespis, famous for his dancing, and consequently, by the 
authority of Athenseus, he must be 6 apxalog Qpvvixog, 
6 opxnomKOQ, the scholar of Thespis. On the whole then, 
there was but one Phrynichus, and if so, from the dates of 
his plays, it is plain, that his master Thespis ought not to 
be placed earlier than 01. 61, which is fourteen years after 
the death of Phalaris. 

22. By another argument, it appears that Thespis was 
younger than Phalaris : the earliest date claimed for Thes- 
pis would make him contemporary with Pisistratus ; now 
from Pisistratus to the battle of Marathon are but two 
generations, for his son Hippias was in that battle, but from 
Phalaris there are four — Telemachus, (who having deposed 
Phalaris, got the government of Agrigentum,) Emmenides, 
iEnesidamus, and Theron, who was made governor three 
years after the battle in 01. 73.1 ; the battle in 01. 72.2. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 15 

23. But from Diogenes Laertius and Plutarch, it has 
been inferred, that Thespis acted plays in Solon's time, 
who died 01. 55.1 ; they say, that when Pisistratus had 
wounded himself, Solon said — " Aye, this comes of Thespis 
acting and personating Ulysses in his tragedy, but he 
wounded himself to deceive his enemies, you to deceive 
your own countrymen." But Plutarch contradicts himself, 
for in another place he says, that Phrynichus and iEschylus 
were the first who introduced MvQovg kol UaOrj, the stories 
of disasters and heroes, on the stage, so that before them 
all tragedy was satyrical, and its subject nothing else but 
Bacchus and the Satyrs ; but if this affair about Thespis, 
Solon, and Pisistratus be true, then Thespis must have re- 
presented Ulysses and other heroes in his play, so that this 
latter passage of Plutarch refutes his former. The case 
seems to be this: — Plutarch having heard this invented 
story about Solon, deeming it a good one, thought it a pity 
to omit it, though it did not exactly hit with chronology. 

24. So much for the age of Thespis. Tragedy is not 
older than Thespis — those who think so, ground their opi- 
nion on passages from Aristotle, Laertius, Plato, Hero- 
dotus and Plutarch. Laertius and Aristotle say, " that of 
old, in tragedy, the chorus alone performed the whole 
dance, afterwards Thespis introduced one actor." Now, 
this does not prove tragedy older than Thespis, for Thespis 
might be the first introducer of one actor, and yet be the 
inventor also of that sort of tragedy that was performed 
by the chorus alone ; at first his plays might be rude and 
imperfect, some songs only and dances by the chorus, the 
Hemichoria or two halves of the "chorus answering each 
other ; afterwards, by the experience of twenty, thirty, or 
forty years, he might improve on his own invention, and 



16 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

introduce one actor, to discourse, while the chorus took 

breath. Plato, in his Minos, tells us that tragedy did not 

commence with Thespis nor Phrynichus, but was very old 

at Athens (this dialogue of Minos, though falsely ascribed 

to Plato, was the production of one Simon, a contemporary 

of Socrates, and is to be esteemed good authority) ; but 

Plato himself relates this as a paradox, and nobody that 

comes after him seconds him in it ; he might be excused by 

this distinction, that he meant auroo-xe^iacrjuara, extemporal 

songs in praise of Bacchus, which were really older than 

Thespis, and gave the first rise to tragedy, were it not that 

he affirms that Minos, King of Crete, was introduced in 

these old tragedies before Thespis's time, which cannot be 

allowed, for the old tragedy was all ^arvpiKri kcu opxnGTiKrj, 

and had no serious and doleful argument, as Minos must be. 

Herodotus says, the Sicyonians honored the memory of 

Adrastus with tragical choruses, (jpayiKoi x°P 0i ->) anc ^ that 

these choruses existed previous to the time of Clisthenes, 

(grandfather to Clisthenes, the principal agent in expelling 

the sons of Pisistratus,) who was senior to Thespis by a 

whole generation. Themistius also says, that the Sicyonians 

invented, and the Athenians perfected, tragedy ; and when 

Aristotle says, that some of the Peloponnesians claimed the 

invention of tragedy, he must mean the Sicyonians ; there 

is, however, no more to be inferred from these passages, 

than that before the time of Thespis, the first grounds and 

rudiments of tragedy were laid ; there were choruses and 

extemporal songs, avTovx^aantca, but nothing written or 

published as a dramatic poem ; nay, the very word tragedy 

was not then heard of at Sicyon, though Herodotus names 

rpayiKovg x°pwg : the tragical choruses, which he does by 

prolepsis. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 17 

Julius Scaliger, mistaking a passage in Plutarch, con- 
cludes that tragedy was very ancient, as tragedians acted 
at the tomb of Theseus : but first, the passage, correctly 
translated, says nothing about tragedies being acted at 
Theseus's tomb ; and, secondly, the tomb of Theseus was 
not erected at Athens, until Cimon brought his bones from 
Scyros, eight hundred years after his death, 01. 77.4, sixty 
years after Thespis, in the time of ^Eschylus and Sophocles. 

25. Bentley makes the name of tragedy not older than 
Thespis ; he rejects the derivations, quasi rpvyofita, and 
Tpax^o. cjJSt), and derives it from rpayog the goat, (th.Q prize 
and not the sacrifice) and w'S//. The goat, he concludes, 
was first constituted the prize in the time of Thespis ; from 
the Arundel marble in the epoch of Thespis, kol aOXov 
IrtQri 6 rpayog ; from Dioscorides, in his epigram on Thes- 
pis, w rpayog a9\ov; and from Horace, " carmine qui tragico 
vilem certavit ob hircum ;" he also quotes Eusebius, Dio- 
medes the grammarian, and Philarg}Tius, to prove that this 
is the true derivation of the name, and concludes that it 
cannot be more ancient than Thespis's days, who was the 
first that contended for this prize. With regard to the 
tragic choruses in Sicyon, the subject of which was Adras- 
tus ; he says, that Herodotus, who lived many years after 
Thespis, when tragedy was improved to its highest pitch, 
made use of a prolepsis, when he called them rpaytKovg 
^opovc, meaning such choruses as gave the first rise to that 
which in his time was called tragedy. To this it is an- 
swered, that the Arundel marble .and Dioscorides merely 
say, that the goat was the prize in the time of Thespis — 
nothing from which we can conclude that it was not so 
before — the same may be said of the line from Horace ; 
besides, the qui may not mean Thespis, for Thespis was 

o 



18 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

the curtailer of the old satyric chorus, he was not the in- 
ventor of the new satyric drama (who was Pratinas). 
Herodotus and Plato, (before quoted,) Diodorus Siculus, 
Diogenes Laertius, Athenseus, Aristotle and Themistius, 
(who speak of the claims of the Peloponnesians to the inven- 
tion of tragedy,) and Suidas, are all quoted, to prove that 
the term TpaywS'ia was of early origin, and given, before the 
time of Thespis, to the choral exhibitions of the ancient 
Dionysia. The very testimonies which Bentley adduces in 
support of his opinions, may more justly be arranged on 
the opposite side. The words of Plutarch (Solon), ap\o- 
fizvu)v rwv TTEpl QidTTiv TYjv Tpaywdiav klvuv, imply rather 
change in rpayto^la, as a thing already in being, than, as 
Bentley would have it, " the beginning of the very rudi- 
ments of tragedy ;" the expression of Horace, " Ignotum 
tragicse genus," &c. (Epist. ad Pis. 275) means that Thes- 
pis was the inventor of a new kind of song, and not that 
he was the* first inventor of tragedy ; and Dioscorides calls 
the composition which Thespis improved TpayiKriv aoi&'iv. 
On the whole, it appears, that long before Thespis, the 
term TpayqSia was formed, and employed as the name of 
the choral performances in the Dionysia, but from not dis- 
tinguishing between TpayqSla, in its original signification, 
and the tragedy of iEschylus, Sophocles, &c. many ground- 
less difficulties have arisen. 

26. The satyrical plays of the Greeks must not be con- 
founded with the satire of the Romans ; they were only a 
jocose sort of tragedy, consisting of a chorus of satyrs 
(from which they had their name) that never reproved the 
vicious men of their time, their whole discourse being di- 
rected to the action and story of the play, which was ge- 
nerally on Bacchus ; the only play of this kind extant is the 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 19 

Cyclops of Euripides, but this no more concerns the vicious 
men of Athens in the poet's time, than his Orestes or 
Hecuba does. As for the abusive poem or satire of the 
Romans, it was an invention of their own — " Satira tota 
nostra est," says Quintilian — and if the Greeks had any 
thing like it, it was not the satyrical plays of the tragic 
poets, but the old comedy of Eupolis, Cratinus and Aris- 
tophanes, or the Silli made by Xenophanes, Timon, and 
others ; it was after the time of Lucilius, that the Roman 
satire became abusive ; for the satire of Ennius and Pacu- 
vius was quite of another nature. 

27. The expressions 1% ajia^q Asyav, to. e£ afxa^wv, 
which became proverbial for satire and jeering, were not 
taken from Thespis's cart, (which, if true, might afford 
some foundation for believing that the satyrical plays of the 
tragic poets were abusive, like the Roman satire,) but from 
the carts used in the processions, not only in the festivals of 
Bacchus, but of other gods, and particularly in the Eleusi- 
nian feast, from whence the women abused and jeered one 
another (hence the word ttoiattzvuv, has the same meaning); 
they particularly did so at a bridge over the Cephissus, 
where the procession used to stop a little ; hence, to abuse 
and jeer was also called yrfvpiZuv — these Eleusinian carts 
are mentioned, G-eorg. i. 163, "tardaque Eleusinse matris 
volventia plaustra," which most interpreters have mistaken ; 
the poet means, not that Ceres invented them, but that 
they were used at her feasts. Demosthenes uses the word 
tto/jlttzveiv in this sense, also the phrase 1%, a/j.a%r}g jue vfipive, 
so that this passage of the orator is not meant of the 
carts of the tragedians; it is true, Harpocration and Suidas 
understand it of the pomp in the feasts of Bacchus, but 
even there, they were not the tragic, but the comic poets 



20 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

who were so abusive. The comic poets (says the scholiast 
on Aristophanes) rubbing their faces with lees of wine, 
that they might not be known, were carried about in carts, 
and sung their poems in the highways, whence came the 
proverb, wg 1% afxa%r}g XaAav, to rail impudently, as out of 
a cart. 

28. Besides the arguments brought forward by Bentley 
to prove that the name tragedy was not older than the 
time of Thespis, he states that those Bacchic hymns, from 
whence the regular tragedy came, were originally called by 
another name ; not tragedy, but dithyramb ; so Aristotle 
teaches — "tragedy (says he) had its first rise from those that 
sung the dithyramb ;•" AiQvpapfioQ (says Suidas) vpvog clg 
Alomcfov. The first inventor of the dithyramb, as some re- 
late, was Lasus of Hermione, who lived in the time of 
Darius Hystaspes ; according to Plutarch, he made great 
improvements in dithyrambic music, and he is represented 
by Aristophanes, as the rival of Simonides. Others make 
Arion, of Methynnrae, in the time of Periander, King 
of Corinth, six hundred years B. C. the inventor ; Hero- 
dotus, however, who is their authority, seems only to say 
that Arion was the first who exhibited at Corinth a certain 
modification of the old Bacchic hymn, arid that he gave to 
this new form the name dithyramb, the general term for 
that class of compositions. The Dithyramb, in its full per- 
fection, was not a mere simple hymn, but a composition of 
much artful interior arrangement, as well as of much ex- 
ternal splendor ; such was the precision and unity of sub- 
ject, such the dramatic tone given by the divisions and sub • 
divisions of the choristers, now alternately questioning and 
responding, now narrating by their coryphaeus, and now 
joining in one general chaunt ; and such the spirit of their 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 21 

mimetic dance and gesticulation, as almost to claim for the 
Dithyramb the name of a Lyric Tragedy ; and from Hero- 
dotus it appears, that as early as 600 B. 0. it was matter 
of scientific composition and regular exhibition in the largest 
and most opulent of the Dorian cities. Simonides of Cos, 
also cultivated the Dithyramb ; he was the friend of Pitta- 
cus of Mitylene, Hipparchus, Pausanias King of Sparta, 
Themistocles and Hiero, and the instructor of Pindar ; his 
poems, like those of his pupil, were various ; victory-odes, 
dirges, &c. and particularly dithyrambs, in which he gained 
sixty victories (or fifty-six, according to his own epitaph) ; 
he died at the age of ninety. But Archilochus of Paros, 
700 B. C. seems to have been the inventor of the Dithy- 
ramb ; he settled in Sparta, from whence he was expelled for 
the violence of his satyric poems ; he wrote elegies, epi- 
grams, satires, dithyrambs, &c. ; he has the word dithyramb 
in two of his verses still extant — it hence appears, that the 
Dithyramb was cultivated especially in the Doric cities ; 
the Doric forms in the choruses of the Attic tragedians, 
bespeak an origin from a Doric Dithyramb ; and from this 
cultivation of the Dithyramb, the claims of the Pelopon- 
nesians to the invention of tragedy may, perhaps, have 
arisen. Sicyon, where the tragic choruses about Adrastus 
were exhibited, and where Epigenes was born — Sparta, 
Corinth, Cos, Hermione, were all Doric Cities or Islands. 

20. The Dithyrambic chorus was also called by all writers, 
Ku»cXfoc, not KvicXiKog — cyclian, not cyclic — from their danc- 
ing in a ring round the altar of Bacchus ; the number of 
the Cyclian Choristers was fifty ; there were three choruses 
belonging to Bacchus, the kwiukoq, rpayiKog, and the 
kvkXioq ; the last had its prize and its judges at the Dionysia, 
as well as the others-^ancl its expenses were the greatest of 



22 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

the three ; a bull (which was sacred to Bacchus) was the 
prize for the Dithyramb, hence Pindar gives to the Dithy- 
ramb the epithet of fioriXarriQ. 

30. The most common etymology of AiOvpajufioQ, is 
SiOvpafiog, double -doored, a name of Bacchus, alluding to 
his double birth, having passed through two doors ; it is 
objected that the first syllable in diOvpa/nfioQ is always 
long, whereas all compounds, with &, implying double, have 
the Si invariably short ; it has been answered that the sin- 
gularity arose from the requirement of the trochaic metre 
of the Dithyramb ; since only by such variation could this 
term of continual occurrence be introduced into a trochaic 
line — a license frequently required by the writers of Hex- 
ameters to bring names, inadmissible from the natural 
quantity of their syllables, into the dactyls and spondees of 
heroic verse — perhaps, like the Phallus, its origin must be 
referred to an Eastern clime. The words ta/.ij3oe, 0/na^j3oc, 
and St^UjoajujSoc, seem to be related to one another — per- 
haps they are corruptions of Sanscrit terms ; for the wor- 
ship of Bacchus was unquestionably of Indian origin. It 
is very remarkable, that the Hindoos apply the term 
Triampo to Baghesa, who almost exactly coincides with the 
Greek Bacchus, as the Greeks did the term Qplanfiog to 
the latter deity. 

31. The Dithyramb did not always preserve a simplicity 
of style consistent with its rural origin or sacred charac- 
ter ; in later ages it too often exhibited a tissue of extra- 
vagant conceits, turgid metaphors, and bombastic expres- 
sions, and whilst the Paean of Apollo, whether before the 
altar, on the battle field, or in the private feast, always 
preserved its calm and elevated character, (though this is 
denied by some,) the Dithyramb was frequently the noisy 
accompaniment of a drunken Symposium* 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 23 

32. Kwjuw&'a was most probably the old and common 
name both for tragedy and comedy, till they came to be 
distinguished by their peculiar appellations ; its etymology 
(lv Kwfiaig tpSfj) a song in the villages, agrees equally to both, 
as they were both first invented and used in the villages ; 
and Dioscorides calls the plays of Thespis Kojfiovg, and says 
that his plays were an entertainment to the KWjUfjrai ; so 
that even Thespis's plays might at first be called comedies, 
a word already in use from the time of Susarion ; but when 
men understood the difference between the two sorts, and 
a distinct prize was appointed to Thespis, it was natural to 
give each sort a particular name taken from the several 
prizes, and the one was called rpaycodia from the goat, and 
this name is never applied to comedy ; even in a passage of 
Aristophanes, where Tpayqdwv, seems to be used for come- 
dians, it is a corruption of the text for TpvyqSwv ; and the 
other was called TpvywSia, from the cask of wine, rpvZ, or 
from rpvyri, vintage, and this word is never applied to tra- 
gedy ; the only distinction between rpvywdbg and Kup-coSog 
being, that the former is the less honorable name : it is 
true, that Aristophanes calls Euripides's tragedies, Tpvyudia, 
but in this consist the wit and sarcasm of the passage, 
that he calls Euripides's plays, comedies, for Euripides de- 
based the majesty and grandeur of tragedy by introducing 
low and despicable characters, and a mean and popular 
style, but one degree above common talk in comedy — 
whereas iEschylus and Sophocles aspired after the sublime 
character, and by metaphors, and epithets, and compound 
words, made all their lines strong and lofty. 

33. The prize for the Kidapqddi, or harpers, was a calf, 
Hoayps* If the bull and the calf, the prizes for the dithy- 
ramb and the harp, continued to the time of Aristophanes, 



24 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

it is probable that the old prizes for tragedy and comedy, 
viz. (the goat, and the vessel of wine and basket of figs) 
also continued, though they are not taken notice of. 

34. Different reasons are assigned for the derivation of 
rpaytpSla from rpayog, either from the goat -skin dress of 
the performers, or from its being the song sung at the 
sacrifice* of the goat, or sung over the goat, or for which 
the prize was the goat ; the latter is preferable. So also 
Ktofii^ia from /cw/aj, fJS//, or KwpaZu), to revel; and Tpvyudia 
from rpvyri, vintage, or rpv^ wine, either because the actors 
smeared their faces with lees of wine, or because the cask 
of wine was the prize. 

35. The laws of Zaleucus, the lawgiver of the Locrians, 
who must have lived before Draco, (who made his laws 
01. 39,) and of Charondas, the lawgiver of the Thurians, in 
Italy, who made his laws, 01. 84, and is supposed by some 
to have been the Scholar of Zaleucus, must have been 
commentitious or forged ; for in both the word rpaywdia is 
used for pomp ; whereas it could not have had that meta- 
phorical use so early as 01. 84. In the infancy of tragedy 
there was nothing pompous ; no scenes, pictures, machines, 
or rich habits — the first scene -f- is supposed to have been 
made by Agatharchus, a self-taught painter, for one of 
iEschylus"' plays, and the other ornaments were first 
brought in by iEschylus ; now iEschylus made his first 
play, 01. 70, and his last, 01. 80 ; his first victory was 
gained 01. 73.3, and we may suppose that he had not in- 

* The goat was sacrificed to Bacchus, being obnoxious to him 
because it browsed on the vines — Virg\ Georg, 2, 380 — Ovid Fast. 
1.353. 

f Aristotle (Poet. S. 10.) attributes the introduction of painted 
scenery to Sophocles. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 25 

vented scenes and other ornaments before that period. 
In 01. 84, JEschylus was newly dead, Sophocles in his 
prime at the age of fifty-four, and Euripides had just en- 
tered on the province of tragedy. Now, Euripides was so 
far from giving occasion to this metaphor by the rich orna- 
ments of his scenes and actors, that he was noted for in- 
troducing his heroes in rags ; and Aristophanes reckons up 
five of his shabby heroes, that gave names to as many of 
his tragedies — QEneus, Phoenix, Philoctetes, Bellerophon, 
Telephus ; it is true, the others were not guilty of the same 
fault, but still their characters were not clad so gorgeously 
as to make tragedy become a metaphor for sumptuousness ; 
for money was at that time scarce in Greece, and the people 
were frugal ; nay, even one hundred years after, in the time 
of Demosthenes, the expense of tragedy was moderate ; 
for he tells us that the charge of a tragic chorus, was much 
less than that of a chorus of musicians, avArjrai, which 
even he, whose fortune was small, voluntarily undertook — 
and Lysias, another orator, a little ancienter than he, has 
given us a punctual account of the several expenses of the 
stage ; the tragic chorus, thirty minse — the x°P°c avdpwv, 
twenty — the -irvppixiGTcu, the Pyrrichists, eight — the chorus 
of men, together with the charge for the tripus, fifty — the- 
cyclian chorus, three hundred — the chorus of boys, fifteen — 
the comedians, sixteen — the young Pyrrichists, seven. — 
Now, the Attic mina being equivalent to three pounds, the 
whole charge for a tragic chorus amounted to about ninety 
pounds, and for a comic, little more than the half of that ; 
some years after a reduction took place in the choral ex- 
penses, for the charges of a tragic chorus are then stated 
to be twenty-five mina?, or seventy-five pounds. When 
such then was the expense of a tragic chorus in the time 



26 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

of Lysias and Demosthenes, the word rpayw^ia could not, 
in 01. 84, signify sumptuousness ; it is true, when tragedy- 
was propagated from Athens into the courts of princes, 
the splendor of the tragic chorus was extremely magnifi- 
cent, as at Alexandria and Rome, which gave occasion to 
that complaint of Horace's, that the show of plays was so 
very gaudy, that few minded the words, Ep. 2, 1, " Tanto 
cum strepitu," &c, and, A. P. "Regali conspectus," &c. ; 
in those ages, it is no wonder, if rpaywdia metaphorically 
signified splendor, and so Philo and Lucian use it. 

36. The materials of tragedy were taken from the Greek 
Mythology, which was revered as an appendage to Religion, 
and as a prologue to History — there are only two Historic 
Tragedies, the " Capture of Miletus 1 ' of Phrynichus, and 
the " Persians" of .ZEschylus, certainly the most imperfect 
of his plays. The royal families, which, by a chain of self- 
requiting crimes, offered the most abundant materials for 
tragedy, were the Pelopids in Mycense, and the Labdacids 
in Thebes, families which were foreign to the Athenians ; 
the Attic Poets never laboured to make the ancient kings 
of their country odious. The Homeric Epos is in poetry 
what the bas-relief is in sculpture ; Tragedy is the out- 
standing group. 



CHAPTER II. 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK DRAMA, 



SECTION I. 

History of Tragedy. 

1. The Drama owes its origin to that principle of imitation, 
which is inherent in human nature ; hence its invention, 
like that of painting, sculpture, and other imitative arts, 
cannot properly be restricted to any one specific age or 
people ; in fact, scenical representations are found among 
nations so totally separated from one another, as to make 
it impossible for one to have borrowed the idea from 
another; in Greece and Hindostan (for the Hindoos* 
have a rich dramatic literature, which ascends back upwards 
of two thousand years) the Drama was at the same time in 
high perfection, whilst Judaea, Arabia, and Persia, the in- 
tervening nations, were utter strangers to it ; the Chinese, 
from time immemorial have possessed a regular theatre ; 
the Peruvians and even the South-Sea Islanders have had 

* Of the plays of the Hindoos, called Nataks, we have but one 
specimen, the Sacontala, which is very similar to the drama of Shaks* 
pcaie, 



28 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

their plays ; each of these people must have invented the 
Drama for themselves, the only point of connexion was the 
sameness of the cause, which led to these several indepen- 
dent inventions, sciz. the instinctive propensity to imitation, 
and the pleasure arising from it when successfully exerted. 

2. The elements of the Grecian Drama must be sought 
for in those annual festivals, which were connected with re- 
ligion, and amongst which those of Dionysos or Bacchus, 
the inventor of wine and the vineyard, and joint patron 
with Ceres, of agriculture, must have been very prominent : 
a passage in Horace, Epist. 2, 1, 139, &c. "Agricolseprisei, 
fortes, parvoque beati, condita post frumenta" &c. would 
lead us to think that the vintage was the season for these 
festivals, but certainly all the Athenian Dionysia were held 
in spring ; from the title of the first day in the Lensea, ra 
UiOoiyia, or the tappings, the feast might have been fixed 
to celebrate the first use of the last year s wine — at Rome 
also the Liberalia were held in March. 

3. Bacchus seems to have been a modern divinity in 
Greece ; in Homer he is seldom mentioned, and takes no 
part in the action of his poems among the inhabitants of 
Olympus — his rencontre with Lycurgus, prince of Thrace, 
(II. 7, 130,) and his persecution by Pentheus, king of 
Thebes, bespeak opposition, at no very remote period, to 
the claims and rites of a newly-introduced Deity ; Herodo- 
tus tells us that his worship was imported from Egypt, 
where he was venerated under the name of Osiris— he 
would also seem to be the same as the Baghesa of the 
Hindoos. Melampus first introduced his rites into Greece, 
not directly from Egypt, but through the intermediate in- 
struction of Cadmus. 

4. Music and poetry are invariably employed in the 



. THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 29 

services of divine worship ; in Greece, that fondness for 
poetry and music for which they were remarkable, combined 
with their keen relish for joke and raillery, naturally in- 
troduced two kinds of extemporaneous effusions, viz., the 
hymns addressed immediately to the Deity (by bands of 
choristers, accompanied by the pipe) around the altar dur- 
ing the sacrifice — grave, lofty, and restrained — called the 
Dithyramb, (which we have already considered, and of which 
the hymns of Homer and Orpheus are specimens,) and the 
songs during the banquet and the Phallic procession- 
coarse, ludicrous and satyrical— -the Phallic songs. Hero- 
dotus derives the procession of the Phallus from Egypt, and 
the walls of the Egyptian temples are still covered with 
paintings representing sacrifices to Osiris, with processions 
of priests and devotees in masquerade attire ; the religion 
of Egypt was generated farther in the East, and we still 
find a trace of the Phallus in the Lingam of Hindoo wor- 
ship : Bacchus or Baghesa, was regarded as the first ge- 
nerating principle and author of all increase, and accord- 
ingly the Phallus was exhibited in these festivals as his 
most conspicuous emblem. 

5. In the first rise of the Bacchic festivals, the peasants 
promiscuously poured forth their own extemporaneous 
strains; afterwards the more skilful performers were 
formed into a chorus, which, with the accompaniment of a 
pipe, sang verses precomposed by those peasants who had a 
natural talent for versifying ; emulation was excited, con- 
tests between the choruses of neighbouring districts speedily 
arose, and an ox was assigned as the prize of superior skill. 
This was the first stage of the Drama. 

6. The next advance was the invention of the satyric 
chorus. Fawns and satyrs were the regular attendants of 



SO THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

Bacchus ; the goat, an animal injurious to vines, and there- 
fore obnoxious to Bacchus, was the appropriate sacrifice ; 
in the horns and hide of the victim all that was requisite to 
furnish a satyric guise was at hand ; the manners of these 
sportive beings would, of course, be adopted along with 
the guise ; crowned with ivy and violets, they bandied about 
jest and sarcasm, and thus a chorus of satyrs was formed, 
and thenceforth became an established accompaniment of 
the Bacchic festival ; it is here we first discover something 
of a dramatic nature ; the singers of the Dithyramb were 
mere choristers, they assumed no character, they exhibited 
no imitation ; the performers in the Satyric chorus had a 
part to sustain, to appear as satyrs, and represent their 
character ; their duties were two-fold ; to sing the praises 
of the Grod, and to pour forth their ludicrous effusions, 
which, to a certain degree, were of a dramatic nature, but 
avTO(7x^ta(jfxara, uttered without system or order, and ac- 
companied with dancing, gesticulation and grimace ; more- 
over, in these extemporaneous bursts of remark, jest, and 
repartee, a kind of dialogue was introduced : here then, in 
this acting and dialogue, we have the essence and the ele- 
ments of the Drama. The lofty poetry of the Dithyramb, 
(the source of the chorus,) combined with the lively exhibi- 
tion of the Satyric chorus, (the source of the dialogue,) 
was at length wrought out into the majestic tragedy of 
Sophocles ; the Phallic song was improved into the comedy 
of Aristophanes. It was now probably that a distinction 
in prizes was made ; the goat was probably at first the or- 
dinary reward of all the victorious choristers, and the term 
Tpaywdia (or goat-song) comprehended the several choral 
chantings in the Dionysia (unless Bentley's opinion be cor- 
rect, viz., that the goat was not the prize, or the term 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, Si 

Tpayqdta invented until the time of Thespis) — but now the 
bull was assigned to the Dithyramb, as a nobler meed for its 
sacred ode, the basket of figs and vessel of wine to the Phal- 
lic, whilst the goat was left to the Satyric chorus. (Subse- 
quently, when the Drama was perfected, the name of the 
poet was proclaimed before the audience ; he, his choragus, 
and performers were alone suffered to wear the garland of 
ivy, which all wore during the contest ; the victorious cho- 
ragus in a Tragic contest dedicated a tablet to Bacchus, 
inscribed with the names of himself, his poet and the 
Archon ; in Comedy, the choragus likewise consecrated to 
Bacchus, the dress and ornaments of his actors ; — the victor 
with the x°j°oe avdpuyv, received a tripod as his prize, which 
was also dedicated in the Lensean temple to Bacchus, in- 
scribed like the dramatic tablets ; and from these tripods 
and tablets, chronological tables of the various theatric 
contests were formed, stating the names of the three poets 
placed first, according to their rank, the titles of their dra- 
mas, and the name of the Archon for the year ; these tables 
were called AtSao-fcaXfat.) The Satyric chorus differed from 
the Phallic chorus in this, that the former was bound down 
to the exhibition of Satyric manners and adventures alone, 
the latter directed its observations, jests,- and sarcasms, to 
the persons and occurrences of present time and place. The 
Satyric chorus, like the Dithyramb, found an early entrance 
into the Dorian cities, and was particularly cultivated at 
Phlius, a town of Sicyon. The first principles of music 
introduced into choruses of all descriptions, those divisions 
and subdivisions of the choristers, which tend so much to add 
diversity and interest to the whole ; the leader of the Satyric 
chorus (originally the poet) sometimes performed a solo 
chaunt and dance, (a practice which Aristotle expresses by 



32 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

the phrase t^apZai rbv di9vpaf.ij5ov) sometimes, with respon- 
sive verses, the leaders of the subdivisions, sometimes the 
choristers of the several divisions engaged in this alterna- 
tion, and then the whole body united in one general burst 
of song and movement. The addition of the Satyric chorus 
formed the second stage of the Drama. 

7. In Attica, there is no direct record of these Dionysian 
representations till the time of Susarion and Thespis ; it is 
evident, however, from the manner in which the improve- 
ments of Thespis are mentioned, that the Satyric chorus 
had long been established in Attica, and probably also the 
Dithyramb — and from a passage in the oration against 
Neaera ascribed to Demosthenes, in which certain rites of 
Bacchus formerly performed by the wife of the king, are 
said to have been transferred to the wife of the king 
Archon, it is clear that his mysteries had found a footing 
in Athens during the remote times of kingly rule ; and 
probably also the choral exhibitions. In 01. 54, B.C. 562, 
Susarion, a native of Icaria, presented himself and his 
comedy at Athens, rehearsing it on a moveable stage or scaf- 
fold ; this was the first drama there exhibited ; it was not 
committed to writing, as the author was the actor of his 
own piece, Epicharmus being the first writer of Comedy, 
who, choosing his plots from the Margites, and rejecting the 
mummeries of the Satyrs, would naturally compose his 
Drama on a more regular plan ; but in 01. 61, B.C. 536, 
Thespis, also a native of Icaria, was the author of the third 
stage in the progress of the Drama, by adding an actor 
distinct from the chorus ; when the performers, after sing- 
ing the Bacchic hymn, were beginning to flag in the extem- 
poral bursts of satyric jest, and the spectators to be wearied, 
he contrived a break in the representation by coming for- 



THE GEECIAN DRAMA. 33 

ward himself, and from an elevated stand, describing, in 
gesticulated narration, some mythological story ; when this 
was ended, the chorus again commenced their performance; 
these dramatic recitations, termed lirucroSia, from being in- 
troduced between the parts of the original performance, en- 
croached on the extemporal exhibitions of the chorus, and 
finally occupied their place. The next step was to add life 
and spirit to these monologues by making the chorus take 
part in the narrative, through an occasional exclamation, 
question, or remark; this was readily suggested by the 
practice of interchanging observations, already established 
among the members of the chorus ; and thus was the germ 
of the dialogue still further developed. " He is said first to 
have smeared his face with vermilion, then with a pigment 
prepared from the herb purslain, and lastly, to have con- 
trived a rude mask made of linen ; the invention of the re- 
gular mask is assigned by Aristotle to iEschylus. Thespis 
first gave the character of a distinct profession to this spe- 
cies of entertainment. He organised a regular chorus, 
which he assiduously trained in dancing, and invented 
dances which continued through four generations, to the 
time of Aristophanes ; though more energetic than graceful, 
their protracted existence proves their excellence ; all the 
advantages of music were added ; the metre of his recita- 
tive was trochaic tetrametre, which was particularly adapted 
to the lively and sportive movements of his satyric chorus ; 
he probably reduced the whole performance to some kind of 
unity, causing this mixture of song and recitative, to tend 
to the setting forth some one passage in Bacchic History. 
The introduction of an actor with his episodic recitations 
was so important an advance, as leading directly to the for- 
mation of dramatic plot and dialogue, and his improvements 



84 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

: of the chorus were of so influential a description, that 
Thespis is generally considered the inventor of the Drama ; 
of Tragedy, properly so called, he had no idea ; the lan- 
guage of his actor and choristers was light and ludicrous ; 
the short episodes were jocose and humourous ; stories more 
or less ludicrous, generally turning on Bacchus or his fol- 
lowers, interwoven with the dance and the song of a well- 
trained chorus, formed his Drama ; it resembled a wild kind 
of ballet-farce more than any thing else. Bentley^s opinion, 
that all the Dramas of Thespis were confined to Bacchus, 
Fawns, and Satyrs, is far from being incontrovertible ; 
though the story of Solon and Thespis may not be true, 
yet we may allow that in his later days, the instructor of 
Phrynichus might have adopted mythological stories less 
connected with Bacchus. It has been argued, that, allow- 
ing the plays which went under his name, to be forgeries of 
Heraclides Ponticus, it cannot be supposed the scholar of 
Aristotle would be so ignorant as to publish, under the 
name of Thespis, a series of plays of such a character, and 
with such titles, as would at once discover the imposture ; 
hence some contend, that Thespis did exhibit pieces of 
heroic and elevated character ; but, (according to Bentley) 
first, supposing Heraclides to have framed his plays with 
exact attention to what he believed to be the nature of 
the Thespian Drama, and therefore to have interspersed 
them with didactic gnomse, still it would no more follow 
that the plays of Thespis were of a serious nature, than that 
the comedies of Epicharmus or Plautus are so, because they 
also are full of moral maxims and sentiments ; and, secondly, 
Heraclides might not have thought it necessary to observe 
this exact conformity ; none but the learned few would be 
able to detect the forgeries (and they did so) ; and among 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 25 

the generality of readers, the pieces would long pass with- 
out suspicion, until the declaration and proofs of their 
spuriousness had been slowly communicated. 

8. Phrynichus, son of Polyphradmon, the pupil of Thes- 
pis, was the author of the fourth stage of the Drama. He 
began to exhibit, B.C. 511, 01. 67.2, one year before the 
expulsion of the Pisistratidse, two before that of the Tar- 
quins. Up to this period, the performance called Tpaytj^ia 
had more the semblance of comedy, than tragedy ; the ele- 
ments of tragedy, though so prepared, as to require only 
a master hand to unite them into one whole of life and 
beauty, were still in a separate state. Phrynichus com- 
bined the Dithyramb, which presented a rich mine of choral 
poetry, with the regular narrative and mimetic character of 
the Thespian chorus ; he also dropped the light and ludi- 
crous cast of the Thespian Drama, dismissed Bacchus and 
the Satyrs, and formed his plays from the grave and ele- 
vated events recorded in the mythology and history of his 
country ; as appears from his " Capture of Miletus and 
Plwnissce ;" he thus was the author of the serious Drama. 
The tragic choruses at Sicyon, however, the subject of which 
were the woes of Adrastus, show that in the Cyclic Chorus, 
at least, melancholy incident and mortal personages had 
been long before introduced ; and there is also some reason 
for supposing that Phrynichus, was indebted to Homer 
in the formation of his Drama. Aristotle says, that Homer 
alone deserves the name of Poet, not only as being superior 
to all others, but as the first who prepared the way for the 
introduction of the Drama ; his jutjuqcrac dpajmctTiKai on grave 
and tragic subjects, in the Iliad and Odyssey, affording 
subjects, and a dignity of tone and character to Tragedy, 
when it had cast off Bacchus and the Satyrs; and his 



36 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

Margites, which was written in Iambic metre, and which 
substituted ridicule for invective, suggesting the idea of 
Comedy, properly so called, to Epicharmus. Now, the 
Homeric Poems had been collected, arranged, and pub- 
lished, a few years before Phrynichus began to exhibit, by 
the care of Pisistratus ; such an event would naturally 
draw his attention to the study of Homer, whose juifxricreig 
SpafiaTucai would strike a mind acute and ingenious as his 
was ; at any rate these two facts stand in close chronolo- 
gical connexion, the first edition of Homer, and the birth 
of Tragedy, properly so called. (iEschylus, the successor 
of Phrynichus, avowed his obligations to Homer ; he mo- 
destly declared his tragedies to be but Ttfiaxn rwv 'Ofihpov 
fxtyaXwv dz'nrvGJv.) Thus, taking the ode and tone of the 
Dithyramb, the mimetic personifications of Homer, and the 
themes which national tradition or recent events supplied, 
Phrynichus combined these several materials, and brought 
them forward under the dramatic form of the Thespian 
Exhibition. The recitative was no longer a set of dis- 
jointed humourous episodes, separated by the dance and 
song of a Satyr choir, but a connected succession of serious 
narrative or grave conversation, with a chorus composed of 
personages involved in the story, all relating to one subject, 
and tending to one result ; this recitative again alternated 
with a series of choral odes, composed in a spirit of deep 
thought and lofty poetry, themselves turning more or less 
directly on the theme of the interwoven dialogue ; — the 
actor and choristers assumed a different aspect ; the per- 
formers now representing not Silenus and the Satyrs, but 
heroes, princes, and their attendants ; the goat-skin guise 
was laid aside, and a garb befitting the rank of the several 
individuals employed in the piece, assumed ; it is probable 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 3? 

also, that the one actor, changing his dress, appeared in 
different characters during the course of the play, a device 
afterwards adopted, when the increased number of actors 
made it less necessary. Phrynichus also is stated to have 
first brought a female actor on the stage. Thus did Tra- 
gedy at length appear in her proper, though not her perfect 
form ; much yet remained to be done ; the management of 
the piece was simple and inartificial ; the argument, some 
naked incident from mythology or history, on which the 
chorus sung and the actor recited, in a connected, but de- 
sultory succession ; there was no interweaving or develop- 
ment of plot, no studied arrangement of fact and catastrophe, 
no contrivance to heighten the interest of the tale and 
work upon the feelings of the audience ; the odes of the 
chorus were sweet and beautiful, the dances scientific and 
dexterous, (as appears from the drunken Philocleon in 
Aristophanes, exhibiting a figure dance of Phrynichus, and 
defying the tragedians of his day to match it,) but those 
odes and dances composed the principal part of the per- 
formance ; they narrowed in the Episodes of the Actor, 
and threw them into comparative insignificance ; frequently 
the chorus left to the Performer little more than the part 
of a speechless image ; in short, the Drama of Phrynichus 
was a serious opera of lyric song and skilful dance, and not 
a tragedy of artful plot and interesting dialogue. Such 
was Phrynichus as an inventor, but as he continued to ex- 
hibit during nearly forty years, (from B.C. 511, to his 
Phoenissse, B.C. 476, and probably longer,) during twenty- 
three of which he had iEschylus as a rival, (who first ex- 
hibited B.C. 499,) his later plays must have been much im- 
proved; his Capture of Miletus (01. 71.3, B.C. 494, in 
which year also it was taken by the Persians) must, to 



88 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

judge from its effects, have had much merit. Miletus was 
a colony of Athens, founded by Neleus, son of Codrus, her 
last king, the capital and pride of Ionia, the birth place of 
Thales, Anaximander and Anaximanes, Hecatseus, the his- 
torian, Histiseus and Aristagoras ; such was the city on 
whose deplorable fate Phrynichus founded his Tragedy; 
the spectacle dissolved his audience into tears ; the magis- 
trates forbade him to touch on that subject in future, and 
fined him in a thousand drachmas ; his Phoenissse was little 
inferior to the Persse of iEschylus, exhibited four years 
after it — and in composing which, iEschylus is charged by 
Glaucus of Rhegium (400 B.C.) with having borrowed 
largely from the Phcenissse. The odes of Phrynichus are 
characterised by Aristophanes, as being reaped from the 
sacred meadow of the Muses, and sweet as the ambrosia of 
the bee ; in these, however, lay his merit ; in plot, dialogue 
and arrangement he was deficient ; his claims as an inven- 
tor must be restricted to the combination of the Poetry of 
the Cyclic with the acting of the Thespian chorus, and the 
conversion of satyric gaiety into the solemnity and pathos 
of proper Tragedy. 

9. Before we proceed to the consideration of the fifth 
stage of the Drama, of which iEschylus was the author, 
a few matters may be stated. Pisistratus died 01. 63, B.C. 
527. Thespis first acted 01. 61, B.C. 536. Susarion 01. 54, 
B.C. 562, one year before Pisistratus established his tyranny; 
thus Comedy was acted at Athens several years before, and 
Tragedy before or at the time of the compilation of 
Homer's Poems. Phrynichus and Epicharmus, however, 
the authors of real Tragedy and Comedy, evidently bor- 
rowed from those Poems, and Thespis and Susarion might 
have resorted to them before they were compiled by Pisis- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



tratus. If Solon disapproved of Tl^pis 1 plays, it must 
have been before Pisistratus established his tyranny, which 
was in 01. 54, and they must have been satyrical, for Solon 
would not have objected to a drama formed on the model 
of Homer, whom he so much admired. Hence, Cumber- 
land deduces, that satyrical tragedy was never committed 
to writing, that Thespis 1 first tragedy, disliked by Solon, 
was satyrical, and that he afterwards wrote Tragedy and 
acted it, 01. 61 (and this in opposition to Bentley's opinion, 
who contended that Thespis never committed any thing to 
writing) ; in proof of this, he deduces the authorities al- 
ready quoted for Thespis being the inventor of Tragedy, 
particularly those of Donatus, who says, " Thespis primus 
hasc Bcrifta in omnium notitiam protulit ;" and Horace, in 
his art of Poetry, and more particularly in 2nd Epist.l, 168, 
" et post Punica bella quietus qugerere ccepkV "quid So- 
phocles et Thespis et iEschylus utile ferrent;" and he 
thinks the reform of Thespis in introducing an actor could 
not be made, much less, recorded by Aristotle, unless Thes- 
pis had written and published Tragedies. 

10. Aristotle wrote his Poetics about two centuries after 
Thespis, after he had quitted the service of Alexander, to 
whom he sent a copy of that treatise ; as his work is chiefly 
critical, he dates his account of the Drama from iEschylus 
and Epicharmus, loosely observing that " the Megarians 
claim the invention of Comedy — both those of Attica (al- 
luding to Susarion) and those of Sicily ; that it probably 
took its origin in a democracy, as Megaris then was ; and 
that Epicharmus was far senior to Chionides and Magnes, 
the first Athenian writers of Comedy ;" but the celebration 
of the Bacchic mysteries was too closely connected with 
popular superstition to be checked by the most jealous 



40 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

tyrant, nor was the old satyrical mask of the Athenians in 
Pisistratus"' time less licentious than that of the Megaren- 
sians in the freest state, though it soon happened that the 
republic of Megara became an oligarchy, and the monarchy 
of Athens, a republic ; he says also, that the Peloponnesians 
claim the invention of the Drama, from the etymology of 
the words Comedy and Drama, that the Peloponnesians 
use the words KU)jxai, and Spav in their dialect, whereas the 
Athenians use SiJ/xoi and -Kparruv ; he might as well have 
given the invention of Comedy to the Megarensians for 
their being notorious laughers, yektoQ j^eyapiKog, being a 
proverb among the Athenians ; and of tragedy from the 
proverb " Megarensian tears," as common as the other 
(from their country abounding in onions), for the use he as- 
signs to Ktofxat and $pav, has no foundation in fact ; Aris- 
tophanes in his comedies frequently putting the verb Spav 
in the mouth of the Athenian speakers, and icio/iai also. 

11. The Drama owed much of its magnificence to the 
overthrow of the Persians. This furnished the Dramatist 
with a subject most noble in itself, and most potent to evoke 
the whole soul of the Poet, and one of such thrilling in- 
terest to every Greek, as to throw at once over infant Tra- 
gedy a dignity and a splendour, which no mere mythologic 
legend could produce. The rich spoils of the East also fur- 
nished all that the theatre could require to bring forward 
in fitting grandeur the triumph of the conquerors. 

12. The origin of scenic entertainments at Rome is 
given by Livy in his 7th B. chap. 2, they were introduced 
from Etruria, to expiate the anger of the Gods in the time 
of a pestilence ; the Etrurian actors merely danced to the 
sound of the flute ; then the youth imitated them, at the 
same time pouring forth on each other extemporaneous 






THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 41 

jesting verses; slaves then became actors, called "histriones," 
from the Tuscan " hister," an actor, who did not use alter- 
nate extemporaneous verse, but continued satyrical verse, 
with dancing to the sound of the flute. Livius (who acted 
his own verses) first dared to turn from the satires and to 
insert a fable with a plot ; he, when his voice became fa- 
tigued, placed a boy to sing before the flute-player, whilst 
he himself went through the gestures ; after the Drama was 
thus changed from jesting to the acting of fables, the youth, 
leaving it to regular performers, after the ancient manner 
threw out ridiculous and jesting verses on each other, which 
kind of play was called a farce, received from the Osci, 
used chiefly in the "Fabellse Atellame," and not suffered to 
be performed by common actors ; hence the actors of the 
Atellanse were not removed from their tribe, and were suf- 
fered to make military campaigns, which was not granted 
to common actors. 

13. Between Phrynichus and iEschylus, two other Tra- 
gedians, Ohoerilus and Pratinas intervened ; the Dramas of 
Choerilus were satyric, like those of Thespis ; in his later 
days he copied the improvements of Phrynichus, and was a 
candidate, as Pratinas also, when JEschylus first exhibited, 
01. 70, B.C. 499 — of one hundred and fifty pieces which he 
wrote, not a fragment remains. Some improvements in 
theatrical costume are ascribed to him by Suidas. Pratinas 
was a native of Phlius,* and once obtained a tragic vic- 
tory ; but the clear superiority of iEschylus in tragedy led 
him to contrive a novel and mixed kind of play ; borrowing 
from tragedy its external form and mythological materials, 

* The Phliasians erected a monument in honor of " Aristeas, the 
son of Pratinas, who with his father excelled all except iEschylus in 
writing Satyrical Dramas." Pratinas also wrote Hyporchemes. 



42 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

lie added a chorus of satyrs, with their lively songs, ges- 
tures and movements— this new composition was called the 
Satyric Drama. The novelty was well-timed — the banish- 
ment of the Satyric chorus, with its pranks and merriment, 
had displeased the people ; the Satyric Drama gave them 
back under an improved form the favorite diversion of 
former times — and was so acceptable, that the Tragic Poets 
deemed it advisable to combine this ludicrous exhibition 
with their graver pieces. One Satyric Drama was added to 
each Tragic trilogy, as long as the custom of contending 
with a series of plays, and not with single pieces, continued. 
^Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, were all distinguished 
satyric composers ; the only extant specimen is the Cyclops 
of Euripides. Pratinas also struck out a considerable im- 
provement in the orchestral part of his Drama, by revoking 
the custom of allowing the minstrels to join in the chant 
with the chorus, and suffering them only to accompany with 
their pipes ; the recitative was thus given more distinctly to 
the audience, and the clamorous confusion of voices avoided. 
It was at the exhibition of one of his Tragedies that the 
scaffolding broke down, (plays having been up to this time, 
exhibited on scaffolds, or in booths, where both spectators 
and performers were placed,) and in consequence, the Athe- 
nians set about building a theatre of stone. He wrote fifty 
tragedies, of which thirty-two were satyric. 

14. From two inscriptions found at Orchomenus in 
Boeotia, the first of which is written in Boeotic, and is sup- 
posed to be older than 01. 145, B.C. 200, and from a Thes- 
pian inscription, graved in the later age of the Roman Em- 
perors, and relating to the same subject, Professor Bockh 
of Berlin concludes, that there existed among the Dorians, 
to a very late period, a style of Drama, essentially differing 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 43 

from the Athenian tragedy in its composition, form, and ex- 
hibition — a modification of the ancient Dithyramb — in fact, 
a Lyric tragedy. 

15. The fifth form of Tragedy owes its origin to iEschylus. 
He was son of Euphorion, and born at Eleusis in Attica, 
01. 63.4, B.C. 525. Pausanias tells a story of his boyhood, 
which shows that his mind was very early struck with the 
exhibitions of the infant Drama ; he was watching* grapes 
in the country, and fell asleep, when Bacchus appeared to 
him and bade him turn his attention to the tragic art ; 
when he awoke, he found himself possessed of the utmost 
facility in Dramatic Composition. At the age of twenty- 
five he made his first essay, 01. 70, B.C. 499, Pratinas and 
Chcerilus being his antagonists ; the next notice we have of 
him is in 01. 72.3, B.C. 490, when, with his three brothers 
Ameinias, Euphorion and Cynsegirus, he was graced at 
Marathon with the prize of pre-eminent valour, being then 
thirty-five years of age ; like Alcseus and Archilochus, he 
held his military character more dear than his literary one, 
and directed to be engraven on his tomb-stone, a distich 
in long and short verse, in which he appeals to the field of 
Marathon and the long-haired Mede, to witness to his valor; 
the inscription was engraven on his tomb by the Geloans. 
Six years after that battle he gained his first victory, 01. 
74, B.C. 484 ; four years after this he took part in the bat- 
tle of Salamis, with his brother Ameinias, to whose extra- 
ordinary valour the apiarda were decreed ; at one of his 
plays, the people enraged at an attack he made on their su- 
perstitions, were going to stone him to death, when 

* To this early employment of the Poet were probably owing his 
habits of intemperance, and his introduction of drunken characters on 
the sta°re. 



44 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

Ameinias* exhibited his amputated arm and turned aside 
their fury ; — the year after the battle of Salamis, he served 
at Platsea ; eight years after, when he was above fifty he 
gained the prize with a tetralogy composed of the Persse, 
Phineus, Grlaucus, and Prometheus ignifer, a Satyric Drama. 
In his later years he retired to the Court of Hiero, where 
he found Simonides, Epicharmus and Pindar — this must 
have been before 01. 78.2, B.C. 467, in which year Hiero 
died. The reasons assigned for his doing so are various ; 
probably fear of and indignation at the multitude for the 
treatment he received, joined to feelings of jealousy at the 
preference given occasionally to Simonides, who gained the 
prize from him in an elegiac contest, and to Sophocles, who 
defeated him, 01. 78.1, B.C. 468 ; as he won the prize with 
the Orestean Tetralogy, consisting of the Agamemnon, 
Choephorse, Eumenides and Proteus, 01. 80.2, B.C. 458, 
two years before his death, either this latter reason must 
be untrue, (for he must have passed into Sicily immediately 
after his success,) or this tetralogy was composed in Sicily, 
and acted at Athens under the care of his friends. Schlegel 
says, that the chief aim of his Eumenides was the support 
of the Areopagus against Ephialtes — that he gained the 
victory, but that Ephialtes was found immediately after 
murdered in his bed, and that iEschylus, fearing the people 
in consequence, retired to Sicily ; this account is inconsistent 
with chronology ; he must have gone to Sicily before B.C. 
467, and the Eumenides was not performed till B.C. 458. 
Hermann endeavours to reconcile the jarring accounts of 

* Others tell us he was saved from the people by taking refuge at 
the altar of Bacchus: and was acquitted of a charge of impiety, before 
the Areopagus, in consequence of the services of his brother Ameinias, 
according to some, of his brother Cynsegeirus, according to others. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 45 

his emigration by saying that he visited Sicily three* or four 
times. In Sicily he resided at Oatana, which Hiero having 
rebuilt, called iEtna ; on Hiero's death he removed to Gela, 
where he died, set. 69, 01. 81, B.C. 456 ; his death was sin- 
gular, an eagle mistaking his bald head for a stone, let fall 
a tortoise on it, and the blow killed him ; this probably was 
an allegory, emblematical of his genius, age, and decay. 
His residence in Sicily would seem to have been of consider- 
able length, as it affected the purity of his language : many 
Sicilian words (as wedaopot for [izTswpoi, wedapcFiog for 
fiZTcipcnoQ) being found in his later plays ; — his appeal to 
posterity would seem to show that his rivals were unjustly 
preferred to him : — "I appeal to posterity," said he, "in the 
assurance that, my works will meet that reward from time, 
which the partiality of my contemporaries refuses to be- 
stow." This appeal was soon verified, for after his death, 
the Athenians made a decree for furnishing the expense of 
representing his tragedies out of the public purse, a statue 
was erected to his memory, and a picture painted descrip- 
tive of his valour at Marathon, in which he was represented 
by the side of Miltiacles. Quinctilian assigns a different 
reason for the decree just mentioned; he says it was for the 
purpose of having his plays corrected, which were rude and 
unpolished. He is said to have composed seventy Dramas, 
of which five were satyrical, and he was thirteen times 
victor ; seven are still extant ; Sophocles composed, accord- 

* He probably yisited Sicily but twice; first in 468 B.C., according- 
to Plutarch's testimony, immediately after his defeat by Sophocles ; 
secondly, in 458, B.C. (having returned in the mean time) immediately 
after the exhibition of the Orestean Tetralogy : his fondness for the 
Dorian Institutions, his aristocratical spirit, and adoption of the politics 
of Aristeides had long before made him obnoxious to the demagogues. 



46 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



ing to Bockh, seventy; according to Suidas, one hundred 
and twenty-three, seven are only extant ; he was twenty 
times victor. Euripides composed seventy-five plays; 
eighteen, and one Satyric Drama, the Cyclops, are extant ; 
he was only five times victor ; the extant plays of iEschylus 
in chronological order, are the Supplices, Persse, Prometheus 
vinctus, Septem contra Thebas, Agamemnon, Choephori, 
Eumenides ; those of Sophocles, are the Ajax, Electra, 
(Edipus Tyrannus, Antigone, Trachinise, Philoctetes, GEdi- 
pus Ooloneus. 

JEschylus was in reality the creator of Tragedy. He 
added a second actor to the locutor of Thespis and Phry- 
nichus, and thus introduced the regular dialogue. He 
abridged the immoderate length of the choral odes, making 
them subservient to the main interest of the plot, and ex- 
panded the short episodes into scenes of competent extent; 
he introduced a regular stage with appropriate scenery (Hor. 
Epist. ad Pis. 279); by him the performers were furnished 
with appropriate dresses, and this he did with such taste, 
that the priests did not scruple to copy and adopt his 
fashion in their habiliments; he invented the cothurnus, 
and the mask, which was so contrived as to give power and 
distinctness to the voice ; it is thought, that, like Thespis 
and Phrynichus, he did not disdain to come forward in per- 
son as an actor : he paid great attention to the choral 
dances, and invented several figure-dances himself — the 
dances he composed for his " Septem contra Thebas" were 
particularly apposite to the scene, and greatly applauded ; 
declining the assistance of the regular ballet masters, he 
himself carefully instructed his choristers, one of whom, 
Telestes, was such a proficient, as distinctly to express by 
dance alone the various occurrences of the play ; Telestes 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 47 

had the honor of a statue decreed to him, which was placed 
conspicuously within the theatre, whilst those of the most 
celebrated Poets were not admitted nearer than the steps 
or portico ; — these dances were finally laughed out of 
fashion by the parody of the satyrical comedy. iEschylus 
introduced a practice, which afterwards became a fixed rule, 
sciz. the removal of all scenes of bloodshed and murder 
from public view (Hor. Epist. ad Pis. 185) ; he introduced 
drunken characters on the stage, a practice, says Athenseus, 
which accorded with his own habits ; his writing, however, 
under the influence of wine, with which he is sometimes 
charged, may only signify that he wrote under the inspira- 
tion of Bacchus — under the true inspiration of poetry. 
So* many and so important were the additions and im- 
provements of iEschylus, that he was considered by the 
Athenians as the Father of Tragedy. In philosophical 
sentiments he was a Pythagorean ; in his Dramas, the 
tenets of this sect may be traced, as, deep veneration for 
the Gods, high regard for the sanctity of an oath and the 
nuptial bond, the immortality of the soul, the origin of 
names from imposition and not from nature, the import- 
ance of numbers, the science of physiognomy, and the 
sacred character of suppliants. Aristophanes, in his Frogs, 
has sketched his character ; he depicts his temper as proud 
and impatient, his sentiments noble and warlike, his genius 
inventive and towering, even to extravagance ; his style 
bold and lofty, full of gorgeous imagery and ponderous 
expressions ; whilst in the dramatic arrangement of his 
pieces, there remained much of ancient simplicity and even 
of uncouth rudeness ; the spectacle which his Drama exhi- 

* He first introduced the custom of contending with trilogies. 



4$ THE GRECIAN DlUMA. 

bits, is that of one sublime, simple scene of awful magnifi- 
cence : there are some passages of so figurative and meta- 
phorical a sort, that they would lead one to think that his 
campaigns against the Persians tinctured his language with 
something of the Oriental tone of expression. No Poet 
introduces his characters on the scene with more dignity 
and stage-effect ; he is in the practice of holding the spec- 
tator in suspense, by a preparatory silence in his chief per- 
son, which is amongst the most refined arts of the Dramatic 
Poet. In the Frogs of Aristophanes, three entire acts are 
occupied in a contest between iEschylus and Euripides for 
the tragic chair among the departed spirits ; Bacchus is 
judge, who decides in favour of iEschylus ; the decree is 
also decisive against Sophocles, for he declares his acquies- 
cence under the judgment, if it should be given for ^Eschy • 
lus, but if otherwise, he avows himself ready to contest 
the palm with Euripides; thus Aristophanes ranks iEschylus 
superior to the dignified Sophocles and the philosophic 
Euripides ;-— this opinion, however, was not held by all ; 
Aristoclemus the Little, gives the first rank in Epic to 
Homer, in the Dithyramb to Melanippides, in statuary to 
Polycletus, in painting to Zeuxis, and in Tragedy to So- 
phocles. Sophocles seems also to be the decided favorite 
with Longinus. Dionysius praises the splendor of the 
talents of iEschylus, the propriety of his characters, the 
originality of his ideas, the force, variety and beauty of his 
language. Longinus speaks of the bold magnificence of 
his imagery, whilst he condemns some of his conceptions 
as overstrained. Quinctilian praises the dignity of his sen- 
timents, the sublimity of his ideas, and the loftiness of his 
style. Such, in the eyes of Antiquity, was the Shakspeare, 
or the Dante of the Grecian Drama. At his death, Sophocles 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 49 

wag in his thirty-ninth year, and Euripides in his twenty- 
fourth. Chionides and Dinolochus, writers of the old 
Comedy flourished in his time ; as did the philosophers 
Zeno Eleates, Anaxagoras, and Parmenides. Socrates was 
in his twenty-second year when jEschylus died, and Pindar 
died two years before him. 

16. Sophocles, by the addition of the third actor, in- 
troduced the sixth and perfect form of Tragedy. Colonus, 
a village about a mile from Athens, gave him birth, 01. 71.2, 
B.07495. (^Eschylus B.C. 525, Euripides B.C. 480.) He 
was thus thirty years junior to iEschylus, and fifteen years 
senior to Euripides — his father Sophilus, an opulent man, 
gave him the best education his country could afford; he 
was instructed in the principles of poetry and music, and 
in the exercises of the Pakestra, in all of which he gained 
the prize ; a proof of his beauty and accomplishments is 
given in this, that at the age of 16, he was selected to lead* 
with dance and lyre the chorus of youths, who performed the 
psean of their country's triumph after the victoiy of Salamis: 
his first victory was gained in his twenty-fifth year, B.C. 4<68, 
on the occasion of the bones of Theseus being transferred 
from Scyros to Athens by Oimon : — iEschylus, now for 
thirty years the master of the stage, was also a candidate ; 
party feeling excited such a tumult among the spectators 
that the Archon Aphepsion had not balloted the judges, 
when Cimon advanced with his nine fellow generals to offer 
the customary libations to Bacchus ; they, taking the re- 
quisite oath, seated themselves as judges of the perform- 
ance : Sophocles was pronounced victor : from this exeni, 

* He was thus the Exarchus, and possibly, therefore, composed the 
Ode. 

E 



50 THE GKECIAN DRAMA. 

B.C. 468, to his death B.C. 405, during sixty-three years, 
he continued to exhibit : twenty times he gained the first 
prize, still more frequently the second, and never sank to 
the third ; his powers, so far from becoming exhausted by 
continued efforts, contracted nothing from labour and 
age but a mellower tone, a more touching pathos, a more 
gentle character of thought and expression ; — in his fifty- 
seventh year he was one of the ten Generals,* with Peri- 
cles and Thucydides among his colleagues, and served in 
the war against Samos ; at a more advanced age he was ap- 
pointed priest to Alon, one of the ancient heroes of his 
country, an office more suited to his peaceful temper ; in 
extreme age, 413 B.C. he was one of the ten irpofiovXoi, 
appointed in the progress of the revolution brought about 
by Pisander, to investigate the state of affairs, and to re- 
port thereon to the people assembled on the hill of Colonus, 
his native place ; and there, he assented to the establish- 
ment of oligarchy under the council of 400, "as a bad thing, 
but the least pernicious measure which circumstances al- 
lowed ;" his sorrows arising from the reverses of his country 
were aggravated by domestic trials; his son Iophon, (by 
his first wife, Nicostrata,) also a tragic Poet, jealous of 
his father's affection for his grandson Sophocles, son of 
Ariston, (by his second wife, Theoris,) endeavoured to de- 
prive him of the management of his property, on the 
ground of dotage : Sophocles merely read before the court 
his CEdipus at Colonus, which he had just composed, or ac- 

* This appointment, it is said, was owing to the political wisdom 
exhibited in his Antigone, performed 440, B.C. in which play also he 
conciliated the favor of the popular party by the way in which he 
speaks of Pericles, V. 662. A similar distinction was conferred on 
Phrynichus. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 51 

cording to some, that beautiful chorus only, in which he 
celebrates the loveliness of his favourite residence ; the ad- 
miring judges instantly arose, dismissed the cause, and ac- 
companied the aged Poet home with the utmost honor and 
respect :* he was spared the misery of witnessing the utter 
overthrow of his country ; early in the year 405, B.C. (for 
he was not alive at the exhibition of the Banse, during the 
Lensean festival in that year) 01. 98.4, at the age of 90, 
some months before the defeat of JEgospotami put the 
finishing stroke to the misfortunes of Athens, death came 
gently on the old man, full of years and glory. (Euripides 
died shortly before him, B.C. 406.) The accounts of his 
death are various; some say that he was choked by a 
grapestone, which the actor Oallipides brought him from 
Opus, at the time of the Anthesteria ; others from exertion 
in reading aloud-f- a long paragraph of the Antigone ; 
others from joy at gaining a poetical prize at the Olympic 
Games; others from joy at gaining the prize on the exhi- 
bition of his (Edipus Coloneus ; he died when the Athenians 
were besieged, and the Lacedaemonians in possession of 
Decelea, the place of his family sepulture : Bacchus (it is 
said) twice appeared to Lysander, the Spartan General, 
and bid him allow the interment, which took place with all 
due solemnity. Ister states, that the Athenians passed a 
decree, to appoint an annual sacrifice to so admirable a 
man. In his younger days he was addicted to wine and 

* This beautiful story is a mere fabrication, for the (Edipus at Co- 
lonus must have been acted, at least for the first time, before the 
breaking out of the Peloponnesian war. 

•j* As <<r^vo^«y/a was attributed to Sophocles, if it arose from delicate 
lungs, this account of his death is probable enough ; there are chrono- 
logical objections to the other statements. See Clinton, F.H. ii,p. 85. 



52 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

pleasure ; Plato records a saying of his, " I thank old age 
for delivering me from the tyranny of my passions." 
Aristophanes, who in his Ranse, manifests so much respect 
for Sophocles, then just dead, had, fourteen years before, 
accused him of avarice, an imputation not reconeileable 
with his character; a kindly and contented disposition, 
blemished with intemperance in pleasures, was the charac- 
teristic of Sophocles— a character beautifully described by 
Aristophanes in this line— 

f O S' £i5icoXoe fx£v lvQaZ\ zvkoXoq 8' Iku. 

He gave the last improvements to Tragedy ;* added a 
third actor, a number which was never afterwards in- 
creased ; he shortened the choral songs further, and more 
fully developed the dialogue ; introduced a more laboured 
complication of the plot, a greater multiplicity of incidents 
and a more complete unfolding of them; a more steady 
method of dwelling on all the points of an action, and of 
bringing out the more decisive ones with greater stage-effect; 
under his directions the effect of theatric representation was 
heightened by the illusion of scenery carefully painted and 
duly arranged : his odes are distinguished by their close 
connection with the business of the play, the correctness 
of their sentiments, and the beauty of their poetry ; he 
improved the rhythm ; his versification is softer, and his 
style more sweet than that of iEschylus ; he studied music 
and the dance under Lamprus, and in both was an adept ; 
he danced, or, according to some, played ball, at the per- 

* iEschylus introduced three actors into some of his later dramas ; 
for instance, the Choephorse — but he doubtless borrowed the hint 
from Sophocles, who gained his first victory twelve years before the 
death of iEschylus. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 53 

formance of his own Nausicaa,* and accompanied the 
choruses of his Thamyris with his voice and harp ; his pic- 
tures of women are flatteringly drawn, and his style is com- 
pared to the honey of the Bee for sweetness ; his language, 
though at times marked by harsh metaphor and perplexed 
construction, is pure and majestic, without soaring into the 
gigantic phraseology of iEschylus on the one hand, or sink- 
ing into the common-place diction of Euripides on the 
other. His management of a subject is admirable. No one 
understood so well the artful envelopement of incident, the 
secret excitation, and the gradual heightening of the feel- 
ings up to the final crisis, when the catastrophe bursts forth 
in all the force of overwhelming terror or compassion. 
Such was Sophocles, the most perfect in dramatic arrange- 
ment, the most sustained in the even flow of dignified 
thought, word, and tone, among the Tragic Triumvirate. 
In the words of Porson — " Sophocles nullain scenam, nul- 
lam personam inducit, quse non ad dramatis ceconomiam 
pertineat, Chorus ejus nihil intercinit, quod non, secundum 
Horatii praeceptum, proposito conducat et apte cohsereat, 
Heroas suos, aut pietatis et justitise amantes, imitando pro- 
ponit, aut secus sentientes merito supplicio afficit.' n 

All the plays of iEschylus contained three Episodes or Acts, 
their intervals being occupied by the chants of the chorus, 
but sometimes the chorus, either excited by violent feeling, 
or the economy of the play demanding it, sung in the mid- 
dle of the acts, so that there are two kinds of the chorus 
of iEschylus, the one, of those which intervene between the 
Episodes, called ordinary, the other of those which chant 

^The Nausicaa was probably a Satyric Drama ; the Odyssee was 
a rich storehouse for the satyrical plays. Sophocles appeared but rarely 
on the stage in consequence of the weakness of his voice. 



£4} THE GRECIAN DRAMA* 

in the middle of the Episodes called* extraordinary— the 
first kind may be reduced to three classes — hymns of praise 
on account of prosperous events, or dirges, deploring their 
own or their friend's misfortunes, or moral precepts, drawn 
from the circumstances of the play. 

Sophocles, in matters relating to the chorus, departed 
much from the ancient nature of the tragic chorus ; in his 
plays, the chorus never sustains the first part ; misfortunes 
never affect the chorus itself, but it is always united in the 
bonds of friendship with the first character of the play ; 
hence it does not exhibit those violent feelings, with which 
It is excited in the plays of iEschylus ; itself, struck with 
terror, does not produce horror in the minds of the spec- 
tators, but moved with pity for its friends, it leads the 
spectators also to pity ; hence its chants, though connected 
with the plot of the play, are less so than in iEschylus, 
who, when he does not commit the first, does the second 
part or character to the chorus ; its chants, shortened by 
iEschylus, are still more so by Sophocles — and the episodes, 
their number being increased — are so joined together, that 
the stage being scarcely ever left free from actors, the ac- 
tion of the play always advances ; whereas in the plays of 
iEschylus, when each episode was finished, the actors re- 
tired, and the chorus chanted ; in Sophocles the chants of 
the chorus frequently succeed the Episodes, most frequently 

* An instance of an extraordinary chorus arising from the economy 
of the play is that of the Persae, where the chorus invokes the in- 
fernal Gods at the command of Atossa. An instance of one arising 
from sudden impulse of passion, is in the Choephoraa, where the 
chorus breaks out into an address to Orestes and Electra, whilst en- 
gaged in avenging the death of Agamemnon, in the midst of the third 
Episode. 



THE GEECIAN DRAMA. 55 

however they are inserted in other places ; hence the eco- 
nomy of the plays of Sophocles does not admit the two- 
fold distinction of the chorus, which the plays of iEschylus 
do — but this distinction being laid aside, all the choruses 
of Sophocles may be reduced to four — hymns — dirges — 
philosophical sentiments — or predictions* concerning the 
doubtful issue of events, 

17. Euripides was the son of Mnesarchus and Clito, of 
the borough Phlya, and the Cecropid tribe; born 01. 75.1, 
B.C. 480, in Salamis, (whither his parents had retired 
during the occupation of Attica by Xerxes,) on the very 
day of the Grecian victory near that Island ; he is said to 
have been much attached to Salamis, and to have written 
his tragedies in a gloomy cave in that island — others say 
that he w r as born on the day the Greeks gained the battle 
of the Euripus, and that he was thence surnamed Eu- 
ripides. Aristophanes (and Theopompus agrees with him) 
says, that his mother was an herb-seller — Philochorus, 
on the contrary, endeavours to prove that she was a lady 
of noble birth : a presumptive argument in favour of the 
respectability of his birth is given in Athenseus, who says, 
that the most noble boys used to feast with the Magistrates, 
and mentions Euripides as an instance ; and Theophrastus 

* These predictions were required in Sophocles and Euripides, not 
so in jEschylus ; for the economy of his dramas did not present a gra- 
dual and successive unravelling of th.eplot, so that there was no room 
for any expectation of strange occurrences, or any uncertainty of 
event, which would originate doubts and anticipations on the part of 
the chorus ; these predictions were also founded on the opinion of the 
ancients, that lyric poetry was composed under the influence of a di- 
vine afflatus, hence prophetic intimations were regarded as suitable to 
the character of the chorus — there is an instance of this in CEdipus 
rex. v. 1105 — 28— where the chorus starts several conjectures concern- 
ing the origin of (Edipus. 



S6 THE GRECIAN DR.AMA. 

says, that when a boy he officiated as cup-bearer to a 
chorus of the most distinguished Athenians, in the festival 
of the Delian Apollo ; as, however, the birth and parent- 
age of a distinguished dramatist must have been well 
known in Athens, there would have been neither point nor 
poignancy in the jeering of Aristophanes on his birth by 
the mother's side, had it not been a fact of public no- 
toriety ; it is then probable his mother was of humble sta- 
tion ; — his father must have been a man of wealth, from 
the costly education he gave his son ; the pupil of Anax- 
agoras, Protagoras, and Prodicus (who was so extravagant 
that he got the name of 7TzvTi}Kovr6^pa\fxoQ^ from the sum 
he charged as the price of his tuition,) could not have been 
the son of persons very mean or poor : — his father, led by 
an oracle, which promised future crowns to his son, (poetic 
garlands,) thinking gymnastic garlands were intended, di- 
rected his attention in early life to gymnastic exercises, 
and in his seventeenth year, he was crowned in the Eleusi- 
nian and Thesean contests ; it does not appear that he was 
ever a candidate in the Olympian* games ; even at this 
early age, however, he is said to have attempted dramatic 
composition ; he also cultivated a natural taste for painting, 
and some of his pictures were long afterwards preserved at 
Megara; at length quitting the gymnasium, he applied 
himself to philosophy and literature ; under the celebrated 
rhetorician Prodicus, he acquired that oratorical skill for 
which his dramas are so remarkably distinguished, so much 
so, that Quinctilian recommends him above Sophocles, or 
any other, to the young pleader \ " in style (says he) he ap- 
proaches to the oratorical, being dense in his sentences, 
equal to the philosophers in his sentiments, and to be com- 

* He was excluded from a contest with the younger combatants, an 
objection, being raised against him, on account of his age 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 5? 

pared to the most eloquent of the forum in speaking and 
answering, wonderful in expressing all the emotions, but 
excelling all in exciting the emotions of pity, madness, and 
love — he was admired and imitated by Menander ;" Cicero 
also was a great admirer of Euripides, probably on account 
of his oratorical excellence ; from Anaxagoras he imbibed 
those philosophical notions, which are occasionally brought 
forward in his works — for instance, that the sun was a 
glowing mass of iron — /mvdpov Sunrvpov — that the overflow- 
ing of the Nile was occasioned by the melting of the snow 
in ^Ethiopia, that air and earth are the producing causes 
of all things, that the Deity is avrocpvrjg. Pericles was his 
fellow-disciple, under both Prodicus and Anaxagoras ; So- 
crates was his fellow-pupil under Anaxagoras ; with him he 
was on terms of the closest intimacy, and from him he de- 
rived those moral gnomse so frequently interwoven into his 
speeches and narrations ; indeed it is stated that Socrates 
largely assisted Euripides in the composition of his plays, 
and that he seldom went to the theatre, except to see some 
new tragedy of his performed ; this philosophising in his 
Dramas gave Euripides the name of the "stage philoso- 
pher. ,, 

The immediate cause which determined him to relinquish 
the study of philosophy, and devote himself to tragic compo- 
sition, is said to have been the imminent danger his master 
Anaxagoras had incurred from advancing certain philoso- 
phical tenets ; yet, notwithstanding all his caution, the Poet 
did not escape the attacks of Athenian sycophancy ; many 
years after this, the celebrated line in the Hippolytus in- 
volved him in a charge of impiety, viz. — 77 yXCoaa ofiw/uox, 
7) $t (ppriv avwfxoroq ; and a similar instance of perverseness 
in imputing to the Poet himself sentiments which belonged 



58 THE GRECIAN DRAMA* 

to "the character represented, is mentioned by Seneca; 
Euripides had put into the mouth of Bellerophon, (in a play 
so called,) a glowing eulogy on riches ; the audience rose in 
a fury, and were for driving the actor and drama from the 
stage, until Euripides, coming forward, begged them to 
wait the issue of the piece, when the panegyrizer of money 
would meet the fate he deserved. 

Euripides began his public career as a Dramatist 01. 81.2, 
B.C. 455, in the twenty-fifth year of his age ; he was third 
with a play entitled Peliades. In 01. 84.4, B.C. 441, he 
won the prize ; in 01. 87.2, B.C. 431, he was third with the 
Medea, Philoctetes, Dictys, and Theristse, a Satyric Drama; 
he was first with the Hippolytus, 01. 88.1, B.C. 428, the 
year of Anaxagoras' death ; second, 01. 91.2, B.C. 415, 
with the Paris, Palamedes, Troades, and Sisyphus ; in this 
contest Xenocles was first i**4t was in this year the disas- 
trous Sicilian expedition was undertaken ; two years after 
this the Athenians sustained the total loss of their arma- 
ment before Syracuse; in his narration of this disaster, 
Plutarch tells us that those captives who could repeat any 
portion of the works of Euripides, were kindly treated, 
and even set at liberty ; he also tells us that Euripides 
honored the soldiers who had fallen in the siege, with a 
funeral poem, two lines of which he has preserved. The 
Andromeda was exhibited 01. 92.1, B.C. 412 — the Orestes 
01. 93.1, B.C. 408 ; soon after this the Poet retired into 
Magnesia, and from thence into Macedonia, to the court 
of Archelaus ; envy and enmityamongst his fellow-citizens, 
and domestic unhappiness (having divorced his first wife, 
Melito, for adultery, and being not more fortunate in his 
second, Chserila) are assigned as the reasons of his self- 
exile; — perhaps, also, the charge of impiety mentioned 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 59 

above, had some share in producing his determination to 
leave Athens; Socrates, his friend, was also invited by 
Archelaus to his court. In Macedonia he composed a play 
in honor of Archelaus, and called it by his name ; Arche- 
laus was so pleased with his abilities, that he appointed 
him one of his ministers ; in Macedonia also he composed 
the Bacchse ; his death took place 01. 93.2, B.C. 406, in 
his seventy-fifth* year, and was occasioned by an attack 
which some ferocious hounds made on him ; — the Athenians 
begged his body from Archelaus, who refused the request, 
and he was buried at Pella, with every demonstration of 
grief and respect ; a cenotaph was erected to his memory 
at Athens, bearing an inscription of four long and short 
verses. Euripides in the estimation of the ancients, cer- 
tainly held a rank much inferior to that of his two great 
rivals ; — Aristophanes, in his Eanse, reproaches him for 
lowering the dignity of tragedy, by exhibiting his heroes 
as whining tattered beggars, by introducing the vulgar af- 
fairs of ordinary life, by the sonorous unmeaningness of 
his choral odes, the meretricious voluptuousness of his 
music, the feebleness of his verses, and by the loquacity of 
all his personages, however low their rank or unsuitable 
their character might be ; — he laughs at the monotonous 
construction of his clumsy prologues; he charges his dramas 
with an immoral tendency, (Sophocles also had not much 
opinion of the moral excellence of Euripides) and the poet 

* On the same day on which Dionysius assumed the tyranny. The 
story of his death is certainly a fabrication, for, were it true, Aris- 
tophanes in the Frogs, would .have alluded to it : it probably arose 
from confounding his death with that of Pentheus, the hero of the 
Bacchse, the last piece he wrote, who was torn asunder by the infuriated 
Bacchanals. 



60 ?HE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

himself with contempt of the Gods, and a fondness for 
new-fangled doctrines ; he jeers his affectation of rhetoric 
and philosophy, and in short, regards him with sovereign 
contempt. 

The attachment of Socrates and the admiration of 
Archelaus may serve as a counterpoise to the insinuations 
of Aristophanes against the personal character of Euripides; 
and as to his poetic powers, there is a striking diversity of 
opinion between the later comedians and the author of the 
Ranse, for Menander and Philemon held him in high esteem; 
yet the exact Aristotle, whilst allowing to Euripides a pre- 
eminence in the excitement of sorrowful emotion, (calling 
his TpayucwTdTOQ iroLriTojv,) censures the general arrange- 
ment of his pieces, the wanton degradation of his person- 
ages, and the unconnected nature of his choruses. 

Longinus, like Aristotle, ascribes to him great power in 
working upon the feelings by depiction of love and mad- 
ness, but he classes him amongst those writers, who, far 
from possessing originality of talent, strive to conceal the 
real meanness of their conceptions, and to assume the ap- 
pearance of sublimity, by studied composition and laboured 
language. Euripides is charged with having a professed 
antipathy to women, and his female characters are unfa- 
vourably cast ; his sentiments breath the air of the schools, 
his images are frequently vulgar, he is carping, sour, and 
disputatious. 

18. From the decision pronounced by Bacchus, in the 
Ranse of Aristophanes, in favor of iEschylus, in the con- 
test between him and Euripides for the tragic chair, we 
may conclude that though we have few remains of the 
Greek Tragedy, yet they are the remains of the best mas- 
ters ; but it does not follow that they are the best, or 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA.- 61 

amongst the best performances of their respective authors; 
we can judge but in part from so small a proportion ; and 
as these authors were in the habit of forming their Dramas 
upon plots that were a continuation of the same story, this 
circumstance must be to the disadvantage of any one piece, 
that happens to come down to us disjunctively, as, for in- 
stance, the Prometheus of iEschylus, and more which 
might be named amongst the remains of the two other sur- 
viving Poets. 

19. Comparison of the three great Tragedians. ^Eschylus 
is a bold, nervous writer, his imagination fertile, but licen- 
tious ; his judgment true, but ungoverned ; his genius lively, 
but uncultivated ; his sentiments noble and sublime, but 
wild and fantastic ; his plots rude and inartificial ; his 
scenes unconnected, and ill-placed ; his language poignant 
and expressive, but frequently turgid, obscure and bom- 
bastical ; his characters strongly marked, but wild and 
fierce ; his peculiar excellency was in raising terror and as- 
tonishment, in warm and descriptive scenes of war and 
slaughter ; were a parallel to be drawn between dramatic 
poetry and painting, he might be styled the Julio Romano 
of ancient tragedy. Sophocles may truly be called the 
prince of ancient dramatic poets ; his fables are interest- 
ing and well-chosen ; his plots regular and well-conducted ; 
his sentiments elegant, noble, and sublime ; his incidents 
natural ; his diction simple ; his manners and characters 
striking, equal, and unexceptionable; his choruses well 
adapted to the subject ; his moral reflections pertinent and 
useful ; his numbers sweet and harmonious ; the warmth of 
his imagination so tempered by the perfection of his judg- 
ment, that he never wanders into licentiousness, nor sinks 
into coldness and insipidity ; his peculiar excellence lies, in 



62* THE GRECIAN BRAMAr 

the descriptive ; for instance, his fine description of the 
Pythian games in the Electra, the distress of Philoctetes 
in Lemnos, and the praises of Athens in the CEdipus 
Coloneus ; he may be called the Eaphael of the Ancient 
Drama. Euripides, fortunately for himself and us, is come 
down to us more perfect and entire than either of the 
others; his fables are generally interesting ; plots frequently 
irregular and artificial ; characters sometimes unequal, but 
generally striking and well-contrasted ; sentiments fine, just 
and proper ; diction soft, elegant and persuasive ; abounds 
more than the others in moral reflections, which, not being 
always introduced with propriety, give some of his trage- 
dies a stiff and scholastic appearance ; in this, however, he 
probably complied with the taste of his age and the wishes 
of Socrates, who would have him deviate from the rigid 
rules of the Drama, to make it subservient to the purposes 
of piety and virtue ; and there is also in his dialogue a di- 
dactic and argumentative turn, which savours strongly of 
the Socratic disputant, and which procured him the name 
of " the philosopher of the theatre." Sophocles painted 
men as they ought to be, and Euripides as they were ; the 
peculiar excellency of Euripides lies in the tender and pa- 
thetic ; his choruses are remarkably beautiful and poetical, 
they do not always naturally arise from and correspond 
with the incidents of the Drama, but they make amends 
for this fault by the harmony of their numbers, and the 
moral sentiments they contain. On the whole, though 
Euripides had not so sublime a genius as iEschylus, or so 
perfect a judgment as Sophocles, he wrote more to the 
heart than either — he may be called the Corregio of the 
Ancient Drama.* 

* If we compare Tragedy with Sculpture, iEschylus is the Phidias 
of Tragedy, Sophocles her Polycletus, Euripides her I^ysippus. 



THE OBECIAN DEAMA. 63 

20. Besides the seven tragedians mentioned, thirty -four 
others have been recorded ; a few may be noticed : Eupho- 
rion, son of iEsehylus, was a tragic writer, he defeated both 
Sophocles and Euripides, 01. 87, B.C. 431, probably with 
one of his Father's Tragedies. 

21. Aristeas, and Pratinashis father, were surpassed by 
JEschylus alone in writing Satyric Dramas. Ion was not only 
a Tragedian, but a lyric poet and a philosopher : he also 
wrote elegies and dithyrambs. 

22. Agathon, a friend of Euripides, may be charged 
with having originated the decline of true tragedy, by in- 
troducing choruses between the acts which had no refer- 
ence whatever to the circumstances of the piece, thus in- 
fringing the law by which the chorus was made one of the 
actors: he also wrote pieces with fictitious names, a transi- 
tion towards the new comedy — something between it and 
the idyll. 

23. Carcinus, with his three dwarfish sons, Xenocles, 
Xenotimus, and Demotimus, are celebrated for introducing 
machinery and stage-shows, especially in the ascent or de- 
scent of the Gods. 

24. Iophon, son of Sophocles, was the best tragic poet 
at the time the Eanse was composed, for Sophocles, Euri- 
pides and Agathon were dead. 

25. Euripides, junior, nephew to Euripides, besides his 
own, exhibited several plays of his uncle ; to him is as- 
cribed an edition of Homer. 

26. Sophocles, grandson of the great tragedian, exhi- 
bited the CEdipus Coloneus of his grandfather ; 01. 94, 
B.C. 401. 

27. Under the Ptolemies flourished seven tragic Poets, 
called the Pleiades. 



64 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

28. The last recorded Greek Tragedy is the XpiaTog 
7ta<Tx<*>v, in the fourth century after the Christian sera- 
published under the name of Gregory Nazianzenus — it was 
composed of disjointed lines and phrases gathered here and 
there from the old Dramatists, and so arranged as to give 
the History of the Passion. To return to the great Trage- 
dians: 

29. Of iEschylus it has been said by Scholefield, " Tra- 
gediam lateritiam accepit, marmoream reliquit." The prin- 
ciple which reigns through his compositions is the tyrant- 
hating principle ; his dramas owe their chief interest to the 
powerful developments which they contain of passions and 
incidents growing out of the efforts of injustice and arbi- 
trary rule ; for instance, the Prometheus, the Agamemnon, 
and more particularly, the Persae. His mortals are dis- 
tinguished for their vigour and mind, seldom for amiable- 
ness of character and sweetness of disposition ; in his com- 
position, the lyrical animation preponderates over the epic 
gravity, and therefore in the dialogue, where each of these 
should stand in juxta-position, his genius seems to be 
clogged with fetters; even here, however, his ships speed their 
way on wings, helms see and hear, smoke claims brother- 
hood with fire, and the deep bends its neck to the yoke ; 
but no sooner has he entered with a choral chant into his 
peculiar element, than his unfettered imagination abandons 
itself to its wildest flight ; here he is like a prophet exempt 
from ordinary restraints, intelligible to the initiated alone ; 
he indulges his contemplations rather to intimate than ex- 
press, and hence he becomes obscure and enigmatical ; this 
enigmatical style is most conspicuous in his character of 
Cassandra ; in proportion as he seeks out the lofty and ma- 
jestic, he labours to express it in the rhythm of his verse, 



THE GKECIAN DRAMA. 65 

this may be seen by comparing his long-protracted, heavy- 
labouring senary with the measured verse of Sophocles, 
the volatile of Euripides, and the almost dancing of Aris- 
tophanes. The intense richness of his thought is mirrored 
in his profuse accumulation of synonymes. In his Agamem- 
non, which is the finest effort of his genius — and in other 
plays, he represents Destiny as controlling all, from the 
Ruler of Olympus, to the weakest who own his dominion, 
and thus in his mythology he diners from Homer, who 
makes Destiny identical with the will of Jove. The Cly- 
tsemnestra of iEschylus (in his Agamemnon) is compared to 
the Lady Macbeth of Shakspeare ; they are similar in this, 
that they are both led away by an absorbing passion to the 
deepest criminal atrocity ; but Clytsemncstra is influenced 
by revenge for, and love to, her sacrificed daughter, and 
guilty love for her paramour ; Lady Macbeth by the exclu- 
sive selfishness of high-vaulting ambition. A modern poet— 
Vittorio Alfieri — has composed a Drama — the Agamem- 
none — very similar to that of JEschylus in its incidents and 
catastrophe, but differing in the delineation of particular 
characters; his Clytsemnestra is more feminine than that of 
iEschylus, he omits the character of Cassandra, and in- 
troduces that of Electra. 

30. From the Homeric Poems, the subject matter and 
the inspiration of the Athenian tragedy were derived : = 
this appears from the titles of the ancient tragedies; as the 
Andromache, Helena, Troades, Rhesus, Hecuba, Orestes, 
and Cyclops, of Euripides ; the Ajax and Philoctetes of 
Sophocles ; the Agamemnon of ^Eschylus ; " Troja mate- 
riam dedit Homero, ceteris autem ille omnibus poetis." 
This he was well calculated to do, from his energy of 
thought and feeling, richness of language and vividness of 

F 



66 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

description, grandeur of events, majesty of versification, 
and from his containing the heroic legends of his country, 
and thus forming a bond of connexion between the world 
of heroic life, and the ages of improvement which suc- 
ceeded ; the Dithyramb was the source of tragedy as to 
form, the Homeric Poems as to matter. 

31. The chorus being the offspring of the dithyramb 
shows that tragedy was originally connected with religion ; 
this appears from the choral chants of Euripides, which are 
for the most part detached from the main piece, and con- 
sist of philosophical or moral reflections. Those of iEschy- 
lus also, whose exposition of the recondite doctrines of the 
priesthood subjected him to the charge of having divulged 
the secrets of the mysteries, are of the same character. It 
is interesting to trace the subject through its several bear- 
ings ; the Grecian mysteries were derived from Egypt ; a 
species of scenic spectacle, termed the Search of Isis, 
formed a prominent feature in the Egyptian rites of Osiris, 
and the story of Ceres' wanderings after Proserpine formed 
the groundwork of a similar representation in the mysteries 
of Eleusis; the chief performer (juvgt ay uyybg) in these sacred 
spectacles, either in person or by the intervention of a 
chorus, accompanied the progress of the action with an ex- 
planation ; these mysteries were accompanied with the per- 
fection of scenic portraiture ; the actors in them used the 
mask, and a species of sandal was used by the priests of 
Osiris; and to all this may be added the orchestral movements, 
which formed a part of these religious ceremonies ; hence it 
appears that the origin of the drama was religious, and that 
the Pagan hierarchy was the Lucina, who presided at its 
birth. In our own literature also, the efforts "bf our early 
dramatists were directed to subjects derived from religion ; 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 67 

even the Paradise Lost is composed of a series of minor 
pieces originally cast in the dramatic form, of which the 
Creation and Fall of Man, and the several Episodes, which 
were introduced subordinately to these grand events, were 
the subject matter. 

32. The Dorian Drama, after which the Poems of Pindar 
were modelled, and which preceded the Thespian, was 
lyrical, divided into strophes and antistrophes, and recited 
with music and dancing ; Thespis conjoined the actor and 
chorus in one piece ; his moving stage forming the first par- 
tition between the two. 

33. Though the Athenians were the inventors of Tragedy, 
properly so called, they borrowed its different materials 
from others ; its chorus from the dithyramb — the iambic, 
trochaic and anapsestic measures from the Ionians ; their 
chorus moved to Dorian, Lydian, and Phrygian harmonies ; 
the girdle which the heroes wore on the stage was of Per- 
sian origin ; and the sandal was derived from Crete. 

34. An excuse for the ampullae and sesquipedalia verba 
of iEschylus may be had in the circumstances under which 
he wrote, (viz. the period of the Persian wars,) and the 
peculiar vehemence of his genius. 

35. The introduction of the precepts of philosophy and 
religion (such as the providence of the Supreme Ruler, the 
immortality of the soul, a future state of retribution, &c.) 
into the choral odes of Euripides, while it interfered with 
the choric unities, i. e. the mutual connexion of the choral 
odes and their respective pieces, amply atoned for this by 
the air of sublimity and the loftiness of expression it dif- 
fused all through them, and by the ample store it has given 
us of the learning of the period, as distinguished from its 
literature: besides his desire to introduce these ■ precepts, 



68 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

his conduct of the Drama would lead to this want of con- 
nexion ; the sources from which he derived his catastrophes, 
and the situations of his dramatic personages, were as ma- 
nifest and various as the passions of the human heart, 
whereas in those of Sophocles and iEschylus, particularly 
the latter, a simple principle directed all, viz., the influence 
of destiny conflicting with and overpowering human will ; 
the chorus was considered by Euripides rather an impedi- 
ment, than an aid to the progress of the action; he seems de- 
sirous to remove it from the drama altogether, and thus he 
supplies a link between the ancient and modern tragedy ; 
his friend Agathon carried out this desire farther ; it was 
commenced by Sophocles, who made the chorus no longer 
the principal personage. 

36. It has been objected to the Greek Drama, that it is 
defective in freedom and fulness in the development of hu- 
man nature; this arises, first, from the totally different 
groundwork of situation and catastrophe in iEschylus and 
Sophocles, and in the modern drama ; that groundwork,, 
viz., the influence of Destiny over the human will, admitted 
not of such a development of the passions of our nature, 
as is exhibited in modern tragedy. Euripides was differ- 
ent ; his was the poetry of pathos, which laid open to view 
the workings of the human heart, and it made use of these, 
independently of a controlling power, as generating causes 
of action, situation, and catastrophe. Secondly, the ac- 
cessary embellishments of music and dress, which the Greeks 
made use of in their representations, were calculated to re- 
move them from the individuality of common life; the 
countenances of their actors were concealed behind masks, 
and the stature and dimensions of the principal personages 
were greatly augmented — both rendered necessary by the 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 69 

size of their theatre — their pieces were accompanied with 
vocal and instrumental music and with imitative movements ; 
and thus it appears to have been one great part of the plan 
of the tragic writer to impress the senses of his auditory 
forcibly and with effect, and while dwelling so much on ex- 
ternals, he was compelled to forego the more solid advan- 
tages resulting from a closer approximation to the world of 
real life. 

37. The Choric Odes merit especial regard, not only as 
constituting the individuality or peculiarity of the Grecian 
drama, but as being the representatives of a most import- 
ant department of Grecian literature, viz. the lyrical, which 
has been almost wholly lost ; many of them breathe the 
true fervor of lyrical inspiration, and some even approach 
to the wildness and sublimity of the Dithyramb — for in- 
stance — that passage in the Bacchse of Euripides, com- 
mencing v. 64 ; the chorus is composed of Bacchanals — 
the chant accompanied with all the instruments of music 
they used in the orgies— the subject, the praises of Bac- 
chus. 

38. The auroffxcSiaa^uara, or extemporaneous effusions, 
of the primitive chorus in the Dionysian festivals, were not 
unlike the improvisamenti of the Italian literature ; the 
practice was not confined to those festivals, but also was 
extended to the sacred rites of Apollo at Delphi, 

39. Sophocles diminished the number of the chorus; 
there having been no fewer than fifty in the Suppliants of 
iEschylus, a number which served only to embarrass the 
scenic representation ; particularly as the chorus was ge- 
nerally selected from the lower classes of society. 

40. Euripides, as well as Sophocles, looked on the chorus 
as sustaining the part of an actor (according to Aristotle 



70 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



and Horace's rule) but in a less connected way ; two causes 
of this want of connexion have been assigned already ; a 
third is this : that in Euripides, the connexion of the chorus 
with the chief persons of the Drama was in general but 
incidental, and consequently the interest they felt in their 
circumstances was but secondary, and merged for the most 
part in their own private solicitudes ; these personal an- 
xieties imparted a character of isolation to their effusions. 
This is particularly apparent in the Iphigenia in Aulide, 
in which the chorus is composed of women of Clialcis, who 
had crossed over to the opposite coast for the purpose of 
viewing the Greek Armament. 

41. iEschylus had but three Episodes or Acts ; Sophocles 
increased the number, without laying down any precise 
law for himself in this respect ; Euripides limited the num- 
ber to five, and observed a more exact uniformity than 
Sophocles in the introduction of the lyric part at the end 
of each Episode. 

42. Greek Tragedy kept pace with the place of its birth, 
and flourished and declined with its native country ; the 
rise of Athens from obscurity to power may be dated from 
the battle of Marathon, soon after which JEschylus formed 
his plan of ancient Tragedy ; Athens then gave laws to 
Greece ; the treasure which she had seized in the temple of 
Delphi, enabled her not only to carry on her wars success- 
fully, but also to encourage her heroes, philosophers, poets, 
painters, architects, sculptors, &c. ; during this happy 
period, Tragedy flourished; Sophocles succeeded and ex- 
ceeded iEschylus ; and then Euripides, born ten years after 
the battle of Marathon, followed ; whilst these great writers 
flourished, Athens also flourished, for above half a century ; 
the superiority of the laws and constitution of Athens was 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 71 

extolled In their writings ; those of Sparta and Thebes were 
condemned ; Euripides was fifty years old when the Pelo- 
ponnesian war began, from which period Athens declined, 
and was soon destroyed by Sparta, in confederacy with the 
Persian monarch ; Sophocles expired one year before the 
taking of Athens by Lysander, when the sovereignty of 
Greece devolved to the Laeedsemonians. 

43. Aristotle says, " it was late before Tragedy threw 
aside the ludicrous language of its Satyrical origin and at- 
tained its proper dignity," indeed it cannot be said that even 
in the hands of iEschylus, Sophocles, or Euripides, it ever 
attained its proper dignity — such a dignity as excludes the 
jocose, the coarse, the comic : this is particularly observable 
in the short dialogue of the Greek tragedies, which is car- 
ried on by a regular alternation of single verses. If that 
be tragi-comedy, which is partly serious and partly comical, 
the Alcestis of Euripides is a tragi-comedy ; — in the first 
scene of the Ajax v. 74 — 88, the dialogue between Minerva 
and Ulysses is perfectly ludicrous ; also the scene between 
Xerxes and the chorus in the Persse of iEschylus ; thus 
we see, even in the improved Tragedy, strong marks of its 
tragi-comic origin ; the true praise of iEschylus, Sophocles 
and Euripides, is the praise of Shakspeare, that of strong, 
but irregular, unequal, and hasty genius ; what meditation, 
and " the labor and delay of the file" only can effect, they 
too often want. 

The incredible number of Tragedies written by these, 
the best authors, affords a strong presumption that their 
tragedy was, in many respects, a simple, unequal, and im- 
perfect thing. 

- 44. Its earliest language was of a low and burlesque 
kind, the Ai&c yeXoia of its satyric origin, conveyed in the 



72 THE GKECIAN DEAMA. 

dancing tetrameter: — iEschylus, taking Homer for his 
model, raised the tone of tragedy, not only to the pomp of 
the Epic, but to the tumid audacity of the Dithyrambic — 
so that as extremes will meet, the XtZig 7^X010, he so much 
avoided, came round and met him in the shape of bombast, 
as when he called " smoke, the brother of fire," and " dust, 
the brother of mud." Sophocles reduced the language of 
his dialogue to a more equable and sober dignity — taking 
Homer still as his model ; and thus his diction was epic, 
though his measure was iambic. Euripides first brought 
down the language of tragedy into unison with the measure, 
so that the one bore the same resemblanee to the common 
speech in its expressions, as the other did in its rhythm. 

45. The Greek Tragedians have often been extolled for 
a strict observance of the unities of action, time, and 
place, and the moderns censured for not following their ex- 
ample ; from this charge the latter have been vindicated 
ably by Schlegel. The first unity, viz. of action, is admit- 
ted to be of high importance ; it seems essential that there 
should be a continuity of feeling or interest — a pervading 
emotion, an object, and a design — which, on its develop- 
ment, should leave on the mind a sense of completeness. 
Those of time and place, in the sense in which they are 
recommended by their French advocates, were never scru- 
pulously observed by the Greek Tragic Poets. In the 
Agamemnon of JEschylus, the watchman, appointed by 
Clytsemnestra, sees the signal lights which announce the 
fall of Troy, and shortly after the Hero enters, having, since 
the commencement of the play, performed the voyage from 
Troy to Argos ; in the Supplicants of Euripides, an entire 
expedition is arranged, leaves Athens for Thebes, and ob- 
tains a victory, during a short choral ode, at the close of 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 73 

which the messenger arrives with an account of the events 
of the field. In the Trachiniae of Sophocles, the voyago 
from Thessaly to Eubcea is three times performed during 
the action. That the events of the play do not oftener 
occupy a longer time, is probably owing to the stage never 
being left empty by a division into acts, but being con- 
stantly occupied, during the pauses of the business, by the 
chorus. Nor is it true, that no change of scene ever took 
place during the representations of the theatre at Athens. 
In the Ajax of Sophocles, a removal of the place of action 
necessarily occurs, and in the Eumenides of iEschylus, it is 
actually transferred from Delphi to Athens; that this 
variety did not more frequently occur, may be traced rather 
to necessity than system ; the decorations of the Athenian 
stage were excedingly massive and costly, and could not be 
removed, during the course of a play, without great delay 
and confusion, but, for purposes of convenience and effect, 
the back scene was so constructed that it could be opened, 
and the interior of the palace, or temple, which it repre- 
sented, be rendered visible to the spectators — hence it may 
be inferred, that other varieties would have been admitted, 
had they been regarded as possible. 



74' THE GRECIAN DRAMA ♦ 

SECTION II. 

History of Comedy. 

1. The early History of Grecian Comedy is enveloped in 
still more obscurity than that of Grecian Tragedy. Its ori- 
gin is referred by Aristotle to the Phallic Songs ; he ac- 
knowledges his inability to trace its progress downwards. 
Its first shape was probably that of a ludicrous, satyrical 
song, the extemporal effusion of a body of rustics, while 
accompanying the procession of the Phallus ; in emerging 
from these disorderly ai>ro<xx£&aerjuara, the first step would 
probably be the establishment of a chorus, and the intro- 
duction of something like subject and composition into its 
songs and recitations ; the performers no longer directed 
their jests against each other, but against other persons ; 
this probably was the sera of Susarion, who is called the 
inventor of Comedy by the Arundel marble ; 01. 54, B.C. 
562 ; he never wrote any, and his Ku/jLydia could have been 
nothing but a kind of rough extemporal farce, into which 
he improved the Phallic song. If Thespis wrote, written 
Tragedy preceded written Comedy, though the complexion 
of the original drama was comic in the most extravagant 
degree : when Aristotle says that the Megarians claimed 
the invention of Comedy, he partly alluded to Susarion, 
who was, according to some, a native of Tripodiscus, in 
Megaris, (to others, of Icarius, in Attica,) and partly to 
Epicharmus, Syracuse being a colony of Megaris. Such 
was Comedy at the time of Thespis; its actors a band of 
peasants smeared with wine lees ; its stage a village green ; 



THE GEECIAN DBAMA. 75 

but now the improvements in the sister-art would speedily 
extend to Comedy ; it became an object of attention to 
poets, who possessing more wit than elevation of sentiment, 
preferred this lighter species of composition to the solemn 
grandeur of tragedy ; interlocutors were introduced with 
the consequent dialogue ; the Iambic metre superseded the 
Trochaic, though not subjected to many of the nicer re- 
strictions of the Tragic Senarius ; masks and appropriate 
dresses were given to the performers, with other requisites, 
the expenses of which the contending poets were obliged to 
defray themselves, since it was long before the magistrate 
would allow the Comic chorus to enjoy the privileges of the 
Tragic, and be equipped at the public cost. 

2. The study of Homer's Margites gave a turn and tone 
to Comedy, (as the reading of his Iliad and Odyssey to 
Tragedy,) by substituting ridicule for invective, and giving 
that ridicule a dramatic cast. Epicharmus, Phormis and 
Dinolochus, the early Sicilian Comedians, in their mytholo- 
gical Dramas, adopted ridicule, but Chionides, Magnes, &c. 
the first Athenian writers, adhered to the old satyric form, 
and used invective ; Crates being the first Athenian who 
adopted the Margitic style and subject. 

3. The Grecian Comedy was threefold* — old, middle and 
new. (1.) In the old, the characters were real and living — 
they were satirized personally, and by name. (2.) The 
temporary abolition of the democracy towards the con- 
clusion of the Peloponnesian war, was quickly followed by 
a law, which forbade the introduction of individuals by 
name as personages in Comedy ; the Comic Poets therefore 

* The first and last writers of the old Comedy were Epicharmus, or 
Chionides, and Theopompus— of the middle, Eubulus and Promo— of 
the new, Philippides and Posidippus. 



76 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

adopted sometimes the old Sicilian style, and transformed 
the mythologic stories of antiquity into ludicrous exhibi- 
tions ; sometimes they parodied the pieces of the tragedians ; 
sometimes ridiculed the philosophers ; and as the law (which 
probably was passed B.C. 440, during the government of 
the thirty) merely forbade the introduction of any indivi- 
dual on the stage by name as one of the Dramatis Personse, 
they evaded the prohibition by suppressing the name, and 
identifying the satirized individual by means of the mask, 
dress, and external appearance alone ; hence in the middle 
Comedy, the characters were real, names fictitious; the 
^Eolosicon of Aristophanes was composed on the plan of 
the middle Comedy ; and the Ulysses of Cratinus — a parody 
of the Odyssey : the chorus was withdrawn from the mid- 
dle Comedy (Hor. A. P. 280) — the middle Comedy con- 
tinued for about fifty years, (3.) The new Comedy com- 
menced about the death of Alexander the Great, and con- 
cluded shortly after that of Menander. If it had not the 
wit and fire of the old Comedy, it was superior to it in de- 
licacy, regularity, and decorum ; the old Comedy drew its 
subjects from public, the new from private life ; the old 
often took its Dramatis Personse from the generals, orators, 
demagogues, or philosophers of the day, and gave them 
their real names ; in the new, both characters and names 
Tvere fictitious ; the old was made up of personal satire, in 
the new, the satire was aimed at the abstract vice, not at 
the individual offender ; the descriptions of the old were 
caricatures, of the new, accurate portraits of men and 
manners ; and as such, its gaiety was often interrupted by 
scenes of a grave and affecting character; the writers of the 
mew not only declaimed against the vice and immorality of 
tMr age, but ventured on truths and doctrines in religion 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 77 

totally irreconcilable to the popular superstition and idolatry 
of the heathen world ; it was on the new Comedy of the 
Greeks, that the Eoman writers in general founded theirs, 
and this in the way of translation, Terence having tran- 
slated all Menander s plays, which are said to have been 
more than eighty. 

4. Epicharmus, the Sicilian, produced the first Comedy 
properly so called — about 01. 70.1, B.C. 500, thirty-five 
years after Thespis began to exhibit, eleven years after 
Phrynichus commenced, and just before the appearance of 
uEschylus ; before him, Comedy was only a series of licentious 
songs and satiric episodes, without plot or connexion ; he 
gave to each exhibition one single and unbroken fable, and 
converted the loose interlocutions into regular dialogue ; 
the subjects of his Comedies were (as may be inferred from 
the extant titles of thirty-five of them) mythological ; the 
woes of heroes had, a few years before, under Phrynichus, 
become the favorite theme of Tragedy ; Epicharmus was 
struck with the idea of exciting the mirth of his audience 
by the exhibition of some ludicrous matter dressed up in 
all the grave solemnity of the newly-invented art; and thus 
he composed a set of burlesque dramas on the usual Tragic 
subjects; they succeeded, and the turn thus given to Comedy 
long continued ; so that when it returned to personality and 
satire, as it speedily did, Tragedy and Tragic Poets were 
the constant objects of its parody and ridicule; this appears 
to be the only solution of the curious fact, that between 
the personality of the Phallic song at the one end, and of 
the Aristophanic Drama at the other, there intervened a 
a completely different species of Comedy, viz. — the Mytho- 
logical Comedy of Epicharmus, Phormis and Dinolochus. 
In the Amphitryo of Plautus, we have an imitation of one 



78 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

of the Mythological Plays of Epicharmus. The great 
changes thus effected by Epicharmus justly entitled him to 
be called the inventor of Comedy. He excelled in the choice 
and collocation of Epithets, on which account the name of 
'Emxapfuog was given to his style, making it proverbial for 
its elegance and beauty. Aristotle blames him for the em- 
ployment of false antitheses; Cicero calls him "acutum nee 
insulsum hominem" — Plato terms him "the first of the 
Comic writers" — Plautus imitated him (Hor. 2 Ep. 2., 58) ; 
he was a Philosopher and a Pythagorean ; there were not 
two persons of the same name, one a Comic writer and the 
other a Philosopher, as some supposed ; — Epicharmus was 
both. Some ascribe to him the invention of two letters of 
the alphabet ; his Comedies contained, in pithy gnomse, les- 
sons on morality and politics ; we find him still exhibiting 
Comedies, B.C. 477, in Hiero's reign, who commenced to 
reign B.C. 478 ; he died at the age of ninety* or ninety- 
seven. 

5. Phormisf was tutor to the sons of Celon, elder bro- 
ther, and predecessor of Hiero ; his comedies and those of 
Dinolochus, another Sicilian, were mythological ; these 
three used the Doric dialect. 

6. Chionides was the first Comic writer among the Athe- 
nians, 01. 73.2, B.C. 487 : his Comedy, as appears from the 
names of three which are recorded, and indeed the Attic 
comedy from its origin, was personal and satirical. Magnes, 
the Athenian, was of the same age as Chionides, his plays 
of the same kind — in his old age his services were forgotten, 
and he died in neglect and obscurity. These five are called 
the Fathers of Comedy. 

* Diogenes Laertius gives the former number — Lucian the latter. 
f Phormis was the first who covered the stage with purple skins. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 79 

7. The three great writers of the old Comedy are Cra- 
tinus, Eupolis, and Aristophanes ; mentioned by Horace. 
(1 Sat. 4.) Quinctilian recommends the old Greek Comedy, 
and these authors in particular, as the best model (Homer 
only excepted) for his orator to form himself on, as it is 
there only he will find the Attic style in its purity and per- 
fection. The first play (the 'Apx&oxoi) of Cratinus (the 
eldest of the three) was exhibited, 01. 83, B.C. 448, when 
he was seventy-one years of age. In 01. 85.1, B.C. 440, 
a decree was passed by the magistracy, prohibiting the ex- 
hibition of Comedy, on account of its personality and 
abuse ; but this law continued in force only during that and 
the two following years, being repealed in the Archonship of 
Euthymenes ; and Cratinus* opened the theatre with his 
XuixaZoiizvoi, Eupolis with his Nov/.trjvmi, and Aristophanes 
with his 'Ax^pvelg ; being ridiculed by Aristophanes in his 
r l7T7rac, Cratinus, in his ninety-fifth year, brought out his 
Ilurtvrj, or, The Flagon, and was victor; he died, aged ninety- 
seven, B.C. 422 ; he got the name of tpiXoworrig, from his 
love of wine ; Hor. " Prisco si credis," &c. 1 Ep. 19. Aris- 
tophanes humourously ascribes his death to a shock on 
seeing a cask of wine staved and lost. The character of 
the old Comedy is well defined by Aristophanes in his 
Ranee — iroXXa f.ilv ytAoTa elwuv 7roAAa $£ crirovdala. 

8. Between Cratinus and Eupolis, two other Comic 
writers intervened, Crates and Phrynichus ; Crates, origi- 
nally an actor in the plays of Cratinus, and the great rival 
of Aristophanes' favorite actors, Callistratus and Philonides, 
was the first Athenian poet who abandoned the satiric form 
of Comedy, and made use of invented and general stories 

* Cratinus gained the second prize, Eupolis the third, Aristophanes 
the first. 



80 THE GRECIAN DBAMA. 

or fables ; perhaps the decree mentioned above had some 
share in giving his plays this less offensive turn ; some say 
he was the first who introduced a drunken character on the 
stage ; Aristotle also says that he made the iambic metre 
of the old comedy more free and apposite to familiar 
dialogue. The names of ten of the comedies of Phrynichus 
are extant. 

9. Eupolis, nearly of the same age with Aristophanes, 
was a bold and severe satirist on the vices of his day ; — 
Persius terms him " iratum ;" he attacked Hyperbolus the 
orator, Autolycus the Areopagite — and even Cimon,* 
charging him with partiality for the Lacedaemonians, and 
with drunkenness ; his death is ascribed to Alcibiades, 
whom he had lampooned, and who is said to have had him 
thrown overboard during the passage of the Athenian 
armament to Sicily, B.C. 415, but Cicero shews from Era- 
tosthenes that this is an error, as Eupolis composed several 
Comedies after this date; his tomb was erected in Sicyonia, 
which makes it probable he died there. 

10. Aristophanes was the son of Philippus, an Athenian; 
as his maiden Comedy, the AatraXac, was represented 
B.C. 427, and when he was under thirty (the age required 
by law in those who were allowed a Comic chorus by the 
Archon) — and therefore brought out under the name of a 
friend, Callistratus, or, as some say, Philonides, and as his 
e l7T7r£Tc, performed B.C. 424, was registered in his own name, 
taking the mean between these two dates as the time of 
his attaining thirty, we shall have B.C. 456, as the year of 
his birth — and as his last play, the Plutus, (which is a spe- 

* Eupolis attacked Hyperbolus in his Magmas ; Autolycus in hi3 
'AvroXvxos ; in his A»x!&x<7<,ov!?, Ciraori, who called his son Lacedaemo- 
uius ; and in his 'A<rr^*revro», Melanthius, the epicure. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 81 

cimen of the middle Comedy) was performed B.C. 388, and 
he lived after this long enough to compose two Comedies 
which were exhibited under the name of his son Araros, 
his death may be fixed at B.C. 380, which would make 
him then nearly eighty years of age ; a saying of Plato 
concerning him is recorded, which Jos. Scaliger has turned 
into verse, 

<J Ut templum Charites, quod non labatur, haberent, 
Invenere tuura pectus, Aristophanes." 
His company was sought after by Plato, Socrates, and 
Dionysius, who in vain invited him to his court at a time when 
iEschines and Aristippus, Socratic philosophers were there, 
and when Plato solicited his notice by three several visits 
to Syracuse ; even the King of Persia considered him the 
most conspicuous personage at Athens. The only immorality 
he is charged with is intemperance in wine ; he was more 
temperate in invective than Cratinus and Eupolis ; he never 
performed himself, as the comic authors then did, until his 
favorite actor Callistratus declined, through fear, to under- 
take the part of Cleon in his personal comedy " The 
Knights," which was exhibited the very year Cleon had un- 
deservedly gained so much glory by the capture of the Spar- 
tans in Sphacteria ; Aristophanes* himself then came on the 
stage, and was completely successful ; Cleon was fined five 
talents, as damages for the charge he had preferred against 
Aristophanes touching his right of citizenship : — " his 
" Acharnians 1 ' turns on the evils of the Peloponnesian 
war ; the Sophists felt the weight of his lash in the " Nubes," 

* As no one could be found bold enough to make a mask represent- 
ing the features of Cleon, Aristophanes was obliged to smear his face 
with wine-lees, which suited well as a substitute, Cleon being- a great 
drunkard. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



though this had nothing to say to the accusation brought 
against Socrates, as it was acted twenty-four years before 
his trial, and Socrates and Aristophanes were excellent 
friends after it was performed ; in the "Ranse" he discusses 
the Drama, and attacks Euripides ; eleven of his Comedies 
are still extant out of upwards of sixty ; they are valuable 
as being the only remains of the Greek Comedy, and are 
said to have been preserved by Chrysostom, when every 
other comic author was destroyed by his Christian contem- 
poraries : his Comedies are the standard of Attic writing 
in its purity, as it was spoken by Pericles ; all antiquity 
prefer him to all other comic authors, except Plutarch, who 
prefers Menander ; yet, if Plautus gives us the model of 
Epicharmus, and if Terence translates Menander, Aris- 
tophanes excels them both. He is remarkable for the ver- 
satility of his genius, his style being elevated, sublime, 
polished, coarse, &c. &c. to suit his different characters ; in 
the sublimity of some of his choruses, he is equal to Ms-- 
chylus or Pindar ; in good sense to Euripides ; in satire to 
Juvenal ; his indelicacy was the fault of his audience, who 
required it, not his own; his eleven Comedies are— the 
Acharnensians, which some think his first, 01. 85, when the 
edict was reversed ; The Knights, 01. 88 ; First Clouds, 01. 
89.1 ; Second Clouds, 01. 89.2 ; The Wasps, 01. 89.2; The 
Peace, 01. 90.4; The Lysistrata, 01. 91.1 ; The Birds, 01. 
91.2 ; The Cerealia Celebrant es and Concionatrices, 01. 92; 
The Frogs, 01. 93 ; The Plutus, 01. 97.4. 

11. There were several other inferior writers of the old 
Comedy, the last writer of which was Theopompus, who 
flourished, B.C. 386. The style of one of them, Pherecrates, 
was proverbially dignified, as most Attic, and his metre was 
called by pre-eminence the Pherecratian metre. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 88 

12. There were thirty-four Poets of the middle Comedy, 
the principal of whom are, Alexis of Thurium, (also the 
birth-place of Herodotus) uncle of Menander ; Antiphanes, 
the most prolific Greek Dramatist, having composed three 
hundred and sixty-five plays ; his body was brought from 
Chios to Athens, and buried at the public expense ; and 
Anaxandrides, who, for attacking the magistracy, was 
starved to death. 

13. The principal writers of the new Comedy were the 
following : Philippides, Timocles, Philemon, Menander, Di- 
philus, Apollodorus, Posidippus. Philippides is the earliest 
writer of the new Comedy, B.C. 335 ; he was in great favor 
with Lysimachus, one of the successors of Alexander, and 
procured from him many benefits for the Athenians ; he 
died from excess of joy on obtaining the prize. Timocles, 
was contemporary of Demosthenes, whom he accused in 
one of his plays of receiving bribes from Harpalus, the un- 
faithful treasurer of Alexander. Philemon, the rival of 
Menander, a native of Syracuse, or Soke in Cilicia ; he is 
acknowledged by Quinctilian to be second to Menander, 
from whom he frequently gained the prize ; he is praised by 
Apuleius ; died at the age of 101, in a paroxysm of laughter 
(according to Lucian) at seeing an ass devouring some figs 
intended for his own eating. 

Menander, chief of the new Comedy, born at Athens, 
B.C. 342, son of Diopithes, the Athenian General, nephew of 
Alexis, educated by Theophrastus, Aristotle's successor ; in 
his twenty-first year he brought out his first drama, the 
'O/oyrj — lived twenty-nine years more, being drowned in the 
Piraeus, at the age of fifty — having composed one hundred 
and five plays. All antiquity celebrate him. Terence is 
called by Csesar only "dimidiatus Menander; 1 ' Plutarch and 



84 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

Dio Chrysostom prefer him to Aristophanes; the latter 
prefers him as a model for orators to the old comic poets, 
on account of his art in delineating character ; Demetrius 
Phalereus, Ovid and Quinctilian, all highly commend him 
for the same ; Ptolemy, son of Lagus, corresponded with 
him ; and yet, out of one hundred and five plays, he only 
obtained eight prizes. All the plays of Terence are tran- 
slated from his, except the Hecyra and Phormio, which 
were copied from Apollodorus. 

Diphilus, a native of Sinope in Pontus, praised by Cle- 
mens Alexandrinus and Eusebius, for his wit and the 
morality of his Drama ; Plautus borrowed his Oasina from 
him. Posidippus, the last of the Comic Poets, a Mace- 
donian, did not begin to exhibit till three years after Me- 
nander's death, B.C. 289. Omitting Timocles, the other six 
were selected by the Ancient Critics as the models of the 
New Comedy. 



CHAPTER III. 



SECTION. I. 

Dramatic Contests. 

1 . The precise time at which the contests of the Drama 
commenced is uncertain. The Arundel marble would make 
them coeval with the first inventions of Thespis ; Plutarch 
not till some years after the early Thespian exhibitions ; the 
true account seems to be this : — the contests of the Dithy- 
rambic and Satyric choruses were almost contemporaneous 
with their origin ; (those of the former continued to the 
latest period of theatric spectacle in Ancient Greece ;) the 
improvements of Thespis, for a time, excited admiration, 
rather than competition ; soon, however, his success stimu- 
lated others to rival the originator ; a regular contest had 
been established before the time of Phrynichus, for he is 
first mentioned as a victor, B.C. 511, twenty-five years after 
Thespis ; and thirty-five years afterwards, B.C. 476, when 
he won the prize with the Phcenissse, the tragic contests 
were carried on with great zeal, as Plutarch tells us in his 
life of Themistocles, who was the Choragus of Phrynichus. 
Under iEschylus and his successors the Theatrical contests 
advanced to a high degree of importance ; they were placed 
under the superintendence of the Magistracy ;- the repre- 



86 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

sentations were given with every advantage of stage de- 
coration, and the expenses defrayed as a public concern ; 
they were maintained at Athens for several centuries, long 
surviving her independence and grandeur, even to the time 
of Julius Caesar, as appears by a decree passed by the Athe- 
nians in favour of Hyrcanus, high priest of the Jews, and 
published at the Dionysian festivals — as Josephus records. 

2. In accordance with the origin of the Drama, its con- 
tests were confined to the Dionysia, or festivals of Bacchus, 
which were three in number, and took place in the spring 
months of the Attic year. 

(1). Ta tear aypovg, or the rural Dionysia, (perhaps the 
same as the 'A(x>co5Ata and Btoivia) held in the country towns 
and villages throughout Attica in noo-ct&aw, the sixth Attic 
month, answering to the latter part of December, and be- 
ginning of January. Aristophanes has left us a picture of 
this festival in the Acharnians ; about to offer a sacrifice to 
Bacchus, Dicseopolis appears on the stage with his house- 
hold marshalled in regular procession, his daughter carries 
the sacred basket, a slave bears the Phallus, he himself 
chants the Phallic song, while his wife stationed on the 
house-top, looks on as spectatress ; the number of actors is 
here limited to one family ; in times of peace the whole po- 
pulation of the A»)/ioc joined in the solemnity — though plays 
were exhibited at this festival, prizes were not contended 
for at it. 

(2). Ta Arivata or tcl Iv Aifxvaig, so called from Ai/xvai, a 
part of the city near the Acropolis, in which was a sacred 
7rept(5o\oQ, or enclosure of Bacchus, called A^vaTov, from 
A^voe, a wine press — this festival was celebrated on the 11th, 
12th, and 13th days of ' AvOtaTripiuv, the 8th Attic month, 
originally called A»?vcuwi/ ? answering to part of February and 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. " 87 

March — the festival itself in later times went by the name 
of ra AvOecrrripia ; each day's ceremonies had their particu- 
lar name ; on the 11th was the IhOoiyia, the broachings — 
on the 12th, the Xotg, the cups, or drinking-bout — on the 
13th, the Xvrpoi, the messes of pottage — these days seem 
to have been seasons of social feasting and entertainment. 
It was at these second Dionysia that the Comic contests 
were more particularly, though not exclusively . held, as 
sometimes the rival Comedians exhibited their new pieces 
at the great Dionysia — so also the Tragic poets sometimes 
contended for the prize at the Lensea, though, in general, 
they reserved their dramas for the more extensive audience 
of the succeeding festival ; this appears from the Didas- 
calise, from which we learn, that of the eleven plays of Aris- 
tophanes, four were represented at the Lensea, two at the 
great Dionysia, and of the remaining five nothing is re- 
corded ; we find that Eupolis exhibited one piece at the 
Lensea, and another at the great Dionysia of the same 
spring ; a law too, cited by Demosthenes, expressly men- 
tions the joint exhibitions of Tragedy and Comedy at both 
Dionysia. 

(2). Ta lv a<TT£i,ra fear' aorv 5 ra cmttiku, ra fieyaXa Aiovvma, 
or simply ra Aiovvcna — celebrated between the 8th and 
18th days of 'EXa0*)j3oAtwv, the 9th Attic month, answer- 
ing to part of March and April ; at this festival there was 
always a great concourse of strangers in Athens, for these 
Aiowvaia were the Dramatic Olympia of Greece ; hence 
iEschines reproaches Demosthenes with being too vain to 
be content with the applause of his fellow-citizens, since he 
must have the crown decreed him proclaimed at the great 
Dionysia, when all Greece was present ; at this festival the 
new tragedies were brought out, and the great annual 



88 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

contest took place. The Aiovvma lv Ueipmn, mentioned by 
Demosthenes, appear to be distinct from the three above- 
mentioned ; plays were performed at this festival also. 

S. These scenic exhibitions were not only protected by 
express laws, but were also enjoined in every oracular direc- 
tion from Delphi or Dodona ; they were placed under the 
immediate superintendence of the first magistrates in the 
state ; those at the great Dionysia, under that of the chief 
Archon, and those at the Lensea under that of the king 
Archon. Demosthenes also mentions a certain superin- 
tendent or superintendents, in the Dionysian contests, 
under the names of aywvoflmje, and ImfXEXriTrig ; the can- 
didates presented their pieces to the presiding Archon ; he 
selected the most deserving compositions, and assigned to 
every poet, thus deemed worthy of admission to the contest, 
three actors by lot, together with a chorus ; the successful 
poet had the privilege of selecting his own actors for the 
next year's Dionysia — the Archon, in like manner, allotted 
the musicians in the x°j°oc auXijrwv. 

4. The equipment of the choruses was considered a pub- 
lic concern, and as such, like the fitting out of triremes, 
and the other Aarov/oyicu, or state-duties, was imposed on 
the wealthier members of the community. 

5. The "ETnjueXrjrcu of each tribe selected one of their body 
to bear the cost, and superintend the training of a chorus ; 
this individual was termed x o P^7^ n ^ s omce ? X°P^Y ia — 
(this appears from Demosthenes, where the ImfjizXriTcu of 
the Pandionid tribe are reprimanded by the Archon for 
not providing a Choragus, which ought to have been done 
some time before the festival) — sometimes the choragie 
\urovpyia was undertaken voluntarily by a public-spirited 
individual, as by Demosthenes ; whilst some of the Choragi 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 89 

provided the tragic and comic choruses at the two Dionysia, 
the others furnished the remaining choruses — the \opbg 
avdpuyv — X°i°"C TatSwv, &c. 

6. No one could legally be a Choragus of a chorus of 
boys, unless he were above forty years of age ; with respect 
to the other choruses, the age required in the several 
Choragi is not known ; though we know that Demosthenes 
was Choragus to the \opog avXriTuv in his thirty-second 
year. 

No foreigner was allowed to dance in the choruses of 
the great Dionysia ; if any Choragus was convicted of em- 
ploying one in his chorus, he w r as liable to a fine of one 
thousand drachmae, yet so averse were the Athenians to any 
interruption in their theatrical entertainments, that a rival 
Choragus, however certain he might be that a competitor 
was employing a foreigner in his chorus, was forbidden, 
under a penalty, to stop the representation of the suspected 
chorus; this law, however, did not extend to theLensea; there 
the MtTOLKOt might also be choragi ; the rival choragi were 
termed avTiypp^yoi ; the contending dramatic poets, and 
the composers for the Cyclian or other choruses, avndidaar- 
xaXoi ; the performers, avrtrg^vot : 

7. The following order was observed when iEschylus pro- 
duced his Eumenides ; it may be considered as a specimen 
of the general practice : having determined to present him- 
self as a candidate for the Tragic prize, he first of all ap- 
plied to the chief of the nine Archons for a chorus; he ob- 
tained one, \opdv iXafle ; the chorus assigned him was that 
which Xenocles, a wealthy individual, had engaged as 
Choragus of his tribe, to collect, maintain during their 
training, and equip for the stage ; he then proceeded to 
train (^Saajceiv) this chorus for his four plays, the Agamem- 



90 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

lion, the Choephorce, the Eumenides, and the Proteus, a 
satyric drama ; the training was a business of the state, 
whose judgment in such matters could be guided only by 
public and ocular demonstrations, regarded as the most es- 
sential part of a Dramatic Poet's duty ; and accordingly, 
the prize was never awarded to the Poet, as such, but in- 
variably to the Teacher of the chorus (\opov SiSacKaAoc) ; 
the poet was said %°P° V aircii;, the Archon, \opbv dovvat ; 
the primitive meaning of &Sa<TKetv Spafia is to teach a play, 
i. e. to the actors ; because the Poet instructed them how 
to perform their parts ; hence it means to exhibit a play, 
hence to compose one ; in the latter sense, the Latins use the 
phrase, " docere fabulam :" Hor. A. P. 288 — " Vel qui 
prsetextas, vel qui docuere togatas," whether they have com- 
posed Tragedies or Comedies for the stage. 

8. During one period in the history of the Athenian 
stage, the tragic candidates were each to produce three 
serious and one satyric drama, together entitled a Terpa- 
Xoyia; otherwise, omitting the satyric drama, the three 
tragedies taken by themselves were called a rpiXoyia ; the 
earliest tetralogy on record is that of iEschylus, which 
contained the Persse, B.C. 472 : from that date to B.C. 
415, a space of fifty-seven years, we have frequent notices 
of tetralogies. In B.C. 415, Euripides represented a te- 
tralogy, one of the dramas in which was the Troades. 
After this time, it does not appear from any ancient testi- 
mony, whether the custom was continued or not ; indeed it 
is matter of great doubt whether the practice was at any 
time regular and indispensable ; Suidas says that Sophocles 
broke this custom, and contended with single plays ; some- 
times, as in the Oresteiad of iEschylus, the three tragedies 
were on a common and connected subject; in general, the 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 9! 

ease was otherwise. It is a commonly received opinion that 
the four dramas of each poet, which composed the tetralogy, 
were always performed at one hearing, in one day. In 
this case, if one poet only produced his tetralogy, there 
could be but four tragedies ; if two, there must be eight ; 
if three, twelve ; and so on : there could be no intermediate 
numbers. Twining thinks there was but one tragedy of 
each poet produced at each festival. The principal autho- 
rity in this matter is a passage from Diogenes Laertius, 
viz. — ''Ekeivol (sc. tragici), rirpaGL Spafiaatv riywviZovTO, 
AiovvGioig, Arivaloig, IlavaOnvaioig, Xvrpoig, wv to riraprov 
$v GciTvpticov, T(i Sc TiTTapa dpa/uara IkoXuto TZTpaXoyia. 
Here are four festivals and four dramas, and the most 
obvious meaning of the passage is, that each poet produced 
not his entire tetralogy at the same festival, but one 
tragedy only at each festival. This supposition seems to 
be rendered probable from the very nature of the rival 
exhibitions ; as each contending poet would then produce 
his drama at the same hearing, each hearing would be a 
distinct day of contest, and there would be at each contest 
a sufficient ground of judgment on the comparative merits 
of each performance. The Satyric Drama probably closed 
the entertainment of each clay. 

9. The Choragic expenses and the prizes have been 
spoken of before. The merits of the candidates were de- 
cided by judges appointed by the Archon ; their number 
was usually five ; only one actual prize was given. When 
a dramatist is said Sivrspaia or rplra \af5uv, it is only 
meant that he was second or third in merit, without any 
reference to an actual prize. In the case of the Cyclian 
choruses, any injustice or partiality in the judges was 
punishable by fine ; and not without reason, if we may 



92 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

judge from the incidental complaints still extant. Thus 
Demosthenes accuses his enemy Midias of destroying the 
ornaments he had provided for his chorus, of bribing their 
trainer, bribing the Archon, judges, &c. No prize-drama 
was allowed to be exhibited a second time ; but an unsuc- 
cessful piece, after being retouched, might be again pre- 
sented. Thus Aristophanes exhibited three different 
editions of the Nubes, and two of the Plutus. The plays of 
iEschylus were exempted by a special decree from this 
regulation. Afterwards, the same privilege was extended 
to those of Sophocles and Euripides ; but as the superiority 
of these three great masters was so decided, few candidates 
could be found to enter the lists against their reproduced 
tragedies ; a law was consequently passed, forbidding the 
future exhibition of these three dramatists, and directing 
that they should be read in public every year. 

10. The whole time of representation was portioned out 
in equal spaces to the several competitors by means of a 
clepsydra ; it was the poefs business, therefore, so to limit 
the length of his play, as not to occupy in the acting more 
than the time allowed. It is impossible now to ascertain 
the average number of pieces produced at one representa- 
tion ; perhaps from ten to twelve dramas might be exhibited 
in the course of the day. If each tribe fnrnished but one 
choragus, and not, as some suppose, one for each different 
kind of contest, the number of tragic candidates could 
scarcely have exceeded three ; for there seem never to have 
been less than three or four distinct kinds of choruses at 
the great Dionysian festivals ; which, when portioned out 
amongst the ten Choragi, could not by any chance allow 
of more than three or four Choragi to the tragic competi- 
tors ; which agrees very well with all that is elsewhere 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 93 

mentioned on this head, for we seldom meet with more 
than three candidates recorded, and probably this was in 
general the whole number of exhibitors. Aristophanes, 
indeed, had on one occasion, four rival comedians to oppose, 
but this was at the Lensea, when, perhaps, not a single 
tragedy had been offered for representation ; and, con- 
sequently, a large proportion of choruses would be left 
disengaged for comic candidates. If the custom of con- 
tending with tetralogies was retained, since there were 
three or four separate hearings in each day, a tetralogy 
would occupy each hearing ; four tetralogies would occupy 
from twelve to sixteen hours, and thus probably the num- 
ber of candidates would be three or four. 

11. We may see a reason why trilogies, or three con- 
nected plays, were performed ; we have thus, thesis, 
synthesis, and antithesis. There is still extant a trilogy of 
iEschylus, viz.— the Agamemnon, the Choephoroi, (or as 
we should call it, Electra), and the Eumenides. The sub- 
ject of the first, is the murder of Agamemnon by Clyteem- 
nestra ; iu the second, Orestes avenges his father by 
murdering his mother ; the subject of the third is the trial 
and acquittal of Orestes ; the accusers, the advocates, and 
the presiding judge, are Gods ; the Court, the Areopagus ; 
Pallas throws in a white pebble ; the black and white 
pebbles are equal ; Orestes is acquitted ; Pallas appeases 
the Furies, and gives them a sanctuary in Athens, where 
they are to be called Eumenides. The political object of 
this play is to exalt Athens and the Areopagus, in opposi- 
tion to Ephialtes ; this trilogy was called the Orestia of 
iEschylus. 

12. As the Greek plays themselves differed essentially 
from ours, so also did the mode of their representation. 



9% THE GRECIAN DKAMA. 

We have theatrical exhibitions almost every evening in the 
year, in Greece they were carried on for a few days only 
in the spring. The theatre was large enough to contain 
the whole population, and every citizen was there, as a 
matter of course, from day-break to sunset : and the torch- 
races in the last plays of a trilogus, seem to show that the 
exhibitions were not over till dark. With us a successful 
play is repeated night after night ; in Greece the most suc- 
cessful dramas were seldom repeated, and never in the 
same year. The theatre with us is merely a place of public 
entertainment, disconnected with and opposed to true 
religion ; in Greece it was the temple of the god, whose 
altar was the central point of the semicircle of seats, from 
which 30,000 of his worshippers gazed upon a spectacle 
instituted in his honor. Our theatrical costumes convey 
an idea of the dresses worn by the persons represented, 
those of the Greeks were but modifications of the festal 
robes worn in the Dionysian processions. The modern 
dramatist has only the approbation or disapprobation of 
his audience to look to, whereas no Greek play was pre- 
sented until it had been approved by a Board appointed to 
decide between the rival dramatists. 



tfHE GBECIAN DRAMA. 95 

SECTION II. 

Actors. — Chorus. 

Actors. — 1. In the origin of the Drama, the members of 
the Chorus were the only performers. Thespis, who was 
his own actor, first introduced an actor distinct from the 
Chorus ; iEschylus added a second ; and Sophocles a third 
actor, and this continued ever after to be the ^legitimate 
number ; hence, when three characters happened to be 
already on the stage, and a fourth was to come on, one 
of the three was obliged to retire, change his dress, and so 
return as the fourth personage. The poet, however, might 
introduce any number of mutes, as guards, attendants, &c. 
The actors were called u7ro/cptrcu, or ayiovidraX ; vtt ok pi v tad at 
was originally to answer, hence when a locutor was intro- 
duced who answered the chorus, he was called 6 vttokpityh;, 
the answerer, a name which descended to the more nume- 
rous and refined actors in after days. Subsequently, 
6 vTTOKpiTr\Q, from its being the name of a performer assum- 
ing a feigned character on the stage, came to signify a man 
who assumes a feigned character in life, a hypocrite. The 
three actors were termed irpioTaytovidTrig, Sturepayamarrie, 
TpiTaywviGTrjQ, respectively, according as each performed 
the principal, or one of the two inferior characters. 

2. iEschylus, in some of his plays, as the Choephorce, 
introduces three actors at once, but in this he imitated 

* Hor. A. P. 192, " Nee quarta loqui persona laboret ;" the reason of 
this was to limit the expenses of the Choragus. 



96 THE GRECIAN DRAMA* 

Sophocles ; on one occasion in the Choephoroe, there seem 
to be no less than four speaking actors on the stage at 
once — Clytsemnestra, Orestes, Pylades, and the UZayyeXog, 
or extra-messenger ; but the extra-messenger quits the 
stage at v. 887, changes his dress, and comes on again as 
Pylades at v. 899. So also the actor who represents 
Ulysses in the Rhesus, leaves the stage after v. 626, and 
returns in the character of Paris before v. 642. It appears 
from these instances, that the recitation of twelve or fifteen 
trimeter iambics allowed an actor sufficient time to retire, 
change his dress, and return. To the law of three actors 
only on the stage at once, there appears to have been made 
an exception in the latter period of Euripides, in favor of 
children. In the Andromache of Euripides, v. 54*6, Peleus 
enters and interrupts a conversation between Andromache, 
Molossus, and Menelaus ; here are evidently four actors on 
the stage at the same time, though Molossus does not open 
his lips after the entrance of Peleus. As the same actor 
cannot perforin the parts of a child and of a full-grown 
person, it would have been impossible, if the indulgence of 
which we are speaking had not been allowed, to put a few 
words into the mouth of a child, without giving up the 
convenience of a third actor for the adult characters. The 
only other Greek Tragedies in which children speak, are 
the Medea and Alcestis of Euripides ; there are two chil- 
dren in the Medea, but as they speak from behind the 
scenes, both parts, which contain only four lines, might be 
given to the same performer. It is very remarkable, that 
the Medea and Alcestis are the only plays of Euripides, in 
which a third actor is not required for the representation 
of the adult characters ; the contrivances which are adopted 
in most cases for the purpose of rendering a fourth actor 



THE GRECIAN DRAMAS 97 

unnecessary, are applied in these two pieces, to the exclu- 
sion of a third actor : it would seem, therefore, that the 
liberty of introducing a child as an actor extraordinary, 
had not been established when Euripides wrote his Medea 
and his Alcestis, which are the two earliest plays of his 
composition which have been preserved. 

3. Dr. Blomfield considers the word zatczva, which occurs 
in Hesychius, to be images dressed up as soldiers, servants, 
&c. It is better to interpret it as living mutes, and not 
dressed-up figures. 

4. The actors took every pains to attain perfection in 
their art. To acquire muscular energy and pliancy, they 
frequented the palaestra ; and to give strength and clear- 
ness to their voice, they observed a rigid diet. An eminent 
performer was eagerly sought after, and liberally rewarded. 
The celebrated Polus* would sometimes gain a talent 
(nearly ^200) in two days. The other states of Greece 
were always anxious to secure the best Attic performers for 
their own festivals ; they engaged them long beforehand, 
and the agreement was generally accompanied by a stipula- 
tion, that the actor, in case he fulfilled not the contract, 
should pay a certain sum. The Athenians, on the other 
hand, punished their performers with a heavy fine, if they 
absented themselves during the city festivals. Eminence in 
the histrionic profession seems to have been held in con- 
siderable estimation in Athens at least. Players were 
often sent as the representatives of the republic on embas- 
sies and deputations, thus the actor Aristodemus was sent 
on an embassy to Philip of Macedon ; others took a distin- 
guished part in the assembly, (in earlier times iEschylus 

* Polus lived in the days of Sophocles, and generally acted with 
Tlepolemus. 



98 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

thought it no degradation to appear on the stage as an 
actor, and Sophocles* more than once played subordinate 
characters in his own dramas,) hence they became conceited 
and domineering — [xu^ov dvvavTat (says Aristotle) tuv 
iroiriTwv ol viTOKpnai ; they were, however, as a body, men 
of worthless character, and as such, were regarded with an 
unfavourable eye, by the moralists and philosophers of that 
age ; Aristotle stigmatizes the players of his day as ignor- 
ant, intemperate, and unworthy of a respectable man's 
company. 

5. There were no female actors ; the female characters 
were performed by men, inasmuch as the female carriage 
and voice would not have been adequate to the energy 
which belonged to the tragic heroines, nor to the vast size 
of the theatre. 

6. The actors were generally paid by the state ; in the 
country exhibitions, however, two actors would occasionally 
pay the wages of their r/Krcry wvf crnic. Demosth. cle Corona, 
p. 345, Bekker. 

Chorus f 1. — There is no foundation for the opinion that 
the Greek Tragedy was divided into Acts ; for (1) no am 
cient writer, who quotes from the plays, mentions the act 
where the passage is to be found, which he would have done, 
had there been any such division ; (2) the word act does 
not once occur in that treatise of Aristotle, which gives us 

* According to some, Sophocles once only appeared as an Actor, 
and that in the character of Thamyris, playing on the lyre. 

f The Chorus was the personification of the thought inspired by 
the represented action ; it represented, first, the common national spirit, 
then, the universal sympathy of mankind ; it was, in a word, the idealized 
spectator ; there is reason to believe that Sophocles wrote a prose work 
on the chorus. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. ' 99 

so exact a definition of every part of the Greek Drama-— 
for the word dpa t aa, which we translate act, signifies the 
whole performance, and not any one particular part of it ; 

(3) the office of the chorus was not to divide the acts by 
their songs, but to prevent any such unnatural pause in the 
drama, as the division into acts must necessarily produce ; 

(4) the tragedies themselves evidence that no such division 
was thought of by their authors ; for, taking the word act in 
the modern sense of the word, we find it sometimes com- 
posed of a single scene, and sometimes of half-a -dozen ; and 
if the songs or intermedes of the chorus are to determine 
the number of acts, the play will not always consist of five, 
but at one time of only three, and at another of seven or 
eight ; the Ajax of Sophocles has five songs of the Chorus, 
the Trachinke six, the Electra three, and the Philoctetes 
but one ; nothing can be more absurd than to make these 
songs dividers of the acts, when the chorus sang only as 
occasion offered, and the circumstances of the Drama re- 
quired, which accounts for the irregularity and difference 
in the number of them : Horace, indeed, says, " Neve minor, 
neu sit quinto productior actu," but the Greek and Roman 
Drama are governed by very different laws ; (5) the old edi- 
tions of the Greek Tragedies, so far from dividing them 
into acts, do not so much as make the least separation of 
the scenes ; even the names of the persons are not always 
properly affixed to the speeches, no notice is taken of the 
entrances and exits of the actors, the asides are never 
marked, nor any of the gestures and actions, which fre- 
quently occur, pointed out to us in the margin : it is, on the 
whole, plain, that the Ancient Greek Tragedy was one con- 
tinued representation from beginning to end. 

2. The parts of Tragedy, with respect to quantity, are, 



100 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

according to Aristotle, Prologue, Episode, Exode, and 
Chorus — the first three are the beginning, middle, and end; 
the cause and design of undertaking any action are the 
beginning ; the effects of those causes, and the difficulties 
we find in the execution of that design, are the middle; the 
unravelling and resolving those difficulties are the end. 

3. The Prologue of tragedy was not unlike the 7rpoavXtov y 
or overture in music, or the procemium in oratory, contain- 
ing all that part of the Drama, which preceded the Parode 
or first song of the whole chorus; by the Parode, Aristotle 
must mean, not the first speech of the whole chorus, for 
the whole chorus never spoke, but sung, the Coryphaeus 
always speaking for them ; nor the first entrance of the 
whole chorus, for there are tragedies (as the Persee and 
Suppliants of iEschylus) where the chorus enters first on 
the stage and opens the play ; to such, therefore, if Aris- 
totle meant the speaking or entrance, and not the song, 
there would be no Prologue, a contradiction which is 
avoided by understanding the Parode to mean the first 
song, which never begins till the Prologue is over, and mat- 
ter furnished to the chorus for the intermede. What 
Aristotle calls the Prologue, should contain, according to 
the ancient critics, all those circumstances which are neces- 
sary to be known for the better understanding of the whole 
Drama ; as the place of the scene, the time when the ac- 
tion commences, the names and characters of the persons 
concerned, together with such an insight into the plot as 
might awaken the curiosity of the spectator, without letting 
him too far into the design and conduct of it; hence 
Aristotle called it ScTyjua Xayov — the introduction of the 
fable; it is not to be confounded with the Prologus of the 
Latin Comedy, which was an address of the Poet to the 
audience, and did not form a part of the play. 



THE GRECIAN DBAMA. 301 

Sophocles alone succeeded in the Prologue; those of 
JEschylus are rude and inartificial, those of Euripides, te- 
dious and confused ; the Prologues of both are often em* 
ployed in absurd addresses to the spectators, or in the rela- 
tion of things extremely foreign to the purpose of the 
Drama, frequently anticipating the incidents of the play, 
and even sometimes acquainting the audience beforehand 
with the catastrophe ; all of them capital errors, which the 
superior judgment of Sophocles taught him carefully to 
avoid. 

4. The 'ETTstfTo&ov or Episode, so called from the entrance 
on the stage of an actor in addition to the chorus, is all that 
part which is included between entire choral odes — between 
the first and last ode ; the Episodes properly comprehend 
all the action or drama, introduced at first by way of relief, 
between the choric songs, to which were added the irpoXoyog 
for an introduction, and the s£oSoe for a conclusion ; hence 
the I^atins called them actus ; they answer to our second, 
third, and fourth acts, and comprehend all the intrigue or 
plot to the unravelling or catastrophe, which in the best 
ancient writers is not made till after the last song of the 
chorus ; this rule, Sophocles, the most correct of the three 
great Tragedians, has observed in all his plays but two, viz. 
the Ajax and (Edipus Tyrannus ; for, if the death of Ajax 
be the catastrophe of that tragedy, it is over long before 
the last song of the chorus ; if the leave granted to bury 
him be the catastrophe, the Episode is confined within its 
proper limits, but this cannot be allowed without attri- 
buting to this piece, what is a still greater blemish, a du- 
plicity of action ; in the CEdipus Tyrannus, the total dis- 
covery of (Edipus's guilt is made before the last song of the 
chorus, and becomes the subject of the intermede. The 



102 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

conduct and disposition of the Episode is the surest test of 
the Poetfs abilities, as it generally determines the merit, 
and decides the fate of the Drama ; here all the art of the 
writer is necessary to stop the otherwise too rapid progress 
of his fable, by the intervention of some new circumstance 
that involves the persons concerned in fresh difficulties, 
awakens the attention of the spectators, and leads them, as 
it were insensibly, to the most natural conclusion and un- 
ravelling of the whole. 

5, The Exode is all that part which is recited after the 
chorus has left off singing — which has no choral ode after it ; 
it answers to our fifth act, and contains the unravelling or 
catastrophe, after which, any song of the chorus would only 
be unnecessary, because what is said, when the action is 
finished, cannot be too short. The actors and chorus 
marched off to a certain tune, IfZodioi vofxoi. 

6. The Chorus, an essential part of the ancient tragedy, 
has not been adopted in the modern ; it gave the first hint 
to the formation of tragedy, was once the sole matter of 
exhibition, was venerated by the multitude as a religious 
ceremony, and was therefore incorporated by the first 
authors of the Drama into the body of tragedy, from a 
desire to give way to popular prejudices ; the following are 
the arguments in its favour : 

(1) The ancients thought it improbable that any great 
and important action should be performed without wit- 
nesses; their choruses were therefore composed of such 
persons as most naturally might be supposed present on 
the occasion, persons who might feel an interest in the 
events of the fable, and yet be not so deeply concerned as 
to make them incapable of performing their proper office, 
viz., the giving advice and making proper reflections on every 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 103 

thing that occurred in the course of the drama ; for this 
purpose, a Coryphaeus, or leader, directed the rest, spoke 
for the whole body in the dialogue part, and led the songs 
and dances in the intermede ; the Chorus, thus interposing 
and bearing a part in the progress of the action, gives the 
representation that probability and striking resemblance of 
real life, the want of which is felt on our stage ; as in- 
stances of the above, it may be remarked that in the Ajax 
of Sophocles, the chorus is composed of the men of Salamis, 
his countrymen and companions ; in the Electra, of the 
ladies of Mycense, her friends and attendants ; in the Phi- 
loctetes, of the companions of Ulysses and Neoptolemus. 
(2) By the introduction of a chorus, which bore a part in 
the action, the ancients avoided the absurdity of monologues 
and soliloquies, into which the moderns have fallen ; also that 
miserable resource of distressed poets, the insipid race of 
confidants, a refinement for which we are indebted to the 
French Theatre. (3) The great use of the Chorus was in 
delivering moral and philosophical precepts ; in the golden 
ages of tragedy, the stage was almost the only vehicle of 
instruction ; Socrates is supposed to have delivered many of 
his precepts by the mouth of Euripides ; hence Euripides 
is called the stage-philosopher, and many of his plays were 
ascribed to Socrates, as those of Terence to Lselius and 
Scipio ; the ancients considered that the principal charac- 
ters were too deeply interested and too busy in prosecuting 
their several designs, to be at leisure to make moral reflec- 
tions, they therefore, very judiciously put them into the 
mouth of the chorus ; thus they also prevented the illiter- 
ate part of the audience from drawing false conclusions 
from the incidents of the Drama, the poet leading then 
insensibly into such sentiments and affections and truths, as 



104 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

he desired to excite and inculcate ; that they occasionally 
fell into those mistakes is evident from the case of Euripides 
mentioned before. (4) Another office of the chorus was to 
relieve and amuse the spectator, during the intervals of the 
action, by an ode or song adapted to the occasion, naturally 
arising from the incidents, and connected with the subject 
of the Drama (this connexion Sophocles observed, much 
better than iEschylus or Euripides) ; to this part of the an- 
cient chorus we are indebted for some of the noblest flights 
of poetry, as well as the finest sentiments that adorn the 
writings of the Greek Tragedians. (5) The Chorus pre- 
served the unities of action, time, and place ; they con - 
tinued on the stage during the whole performance, except 
when some very extraordinary circumstance required their 
absence ; (thus in the Ajax, the chorus leave the stage in 
search of Ajax, and so give him an opportunity of killing 
himself in the very spot which they had quitted, which 
could not have been done with any propriety whilst they 
were present and able to prevent it;) this obliged the poet 
to a continuity of action and place, as the chorus could not 
have any excuse for remaining on the spot, when the affair 
which called them together was at an end, and must remain 
there, till it was concluded ; it also preserved the unity of 
time, for if the Poet had comprehended in his play a month, 
a week, or a year, how could the spectators be made to 
believe, that the people, who were before them, could have 
passed so long a time without eating, drinking, or sleeping? 
(6) The chorus presided over and directed the music ; (7) 
it made a part of the decoration ; the splendor of the 
dresses, the music, dancing, and poetry, formed a spectacle, 
peculiarly gratifying to the eye, ear, and intellect of an 
Attic audience ; (8) it pervaded and animated the whole, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 105 

rendered the poem more regular, more probable, more pa- 
thetic, more noble and magnificent ; it was the great chain, 
which held together and strengthened the several parts of 
the Drama, which, without it, could only have exhibited a 
lifeless and uninteresting scene of irregularity, darkness 
and confusion. 

7. The number of xop£U7<u was probably at first inde- 
terminate ; iEschylus, we are told, brought no less than 
fifty into his Eumenides, but was obliged to reduce them to 
twelve ; Sophocles was afterwards permitted to add three ; 
and according to Pollux, the number was then fixed by law 
at fifteen in tragedy and twenty- four in comedy. Midler's 
hypothesis is the following : — " The Tragic chorus was de- 
rived from the Dithyrambic, which consisted of fifty per- 
sons ; this being the case, it is natural to suppose that the 
Choragus furnished the same number of dancers for the 
Tragic chorus, as he had previously for the Dithyrambic, 
and that the distribution of these fifty persons into the 
component choruses of the tetralogy (viz. twelve or fifteen) 
was left to the discretion of the Poet. In this case, the 
well-known statement of Pollux, that the Chorus of the 
Eumenides consisted of fifty, may still be defended, if we 
suppose the fifty to belong to the whole tetralogy, of which 
number, at least three-fourths were on the stage at the end 
of the Eumenides ; still, however, the number fifty requires 
some modification ; the Dithyrambic chorus was Cyclic, and 
sang the Dithyramb in a circle about the altar, passing 
round it, first in one direction, then in the other ; but the 
Tragic, as well as the Comic and Satyric Chorus, was qua- 
drangular, TtTpaywvog. Now, a quadrangular chorus is one 
that is divided into rank (£irya), and file (crrotxoi), so as to 
form a quadrangle — its number therefore must be always a, 



106: 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



composite number, as 3 x 4=12, 3x5=15; but as it ap- 
pears that the component numbers are never so far apart 
that the one is double of the other, (3x4 or 3x5 is the 
Tragic, 4 x 6 is the Comic Chorus,) it is not probable that 
there should be a quadrangular chorus of 5 x 10. If the 
tragic chorus of earlier times came on the stage, as an un- 
divided whole, it is much more probable that its number 
was forty-eight, 6x8; now an equal division of this chorus 
of forty-eight gives twelve Choreutse for each of the four 
plays ; twelve, therefore, recommends itself as the probable 
number originally employed by iEschylus ; moreover, twelve 
is just half the number of the Comic Chorus, for which, 
owing to the far less encouragement given by the state to 
Comedy, half as many persons were deemed sufficient, as 
were required for the collective chorus of a Tragic Tetralogy; 
the original number of Choreutse in each tragedy cannot 
have been fifteen, because in that case, either the collective 
chorus must have extended beyond fifty, which its close 
connexion with the Dithyrambic chorus forbids us to sup- 
pose, or there would be only five left for the Satyric Drama, 
which would be too small a number for a festive chorus, and 
far too scanty a representation of the merry crew of Bac- 
chus. 

8. The situation assigned to the Chorus was the orches^ 
tra, which the Choristers entered, preceded by a player on 
the flute, who regulated their steps, sometimes in single file, 
more frequently five or four in front and three in depth, 
(Kara £i>ya,) or vice versa, (Kara (jToi\ovg,) in tragedy, and 
4 x 6 or 6x4 in Comedy ; its first entrance was called 
irapodoQ) which probably made one of the most splendid and 
popular parts of the o\pig, or show of the ancient tragedy ; 
there are not more than four or five Tragedies, in which 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA- 107 

the chorus is present from the beginning. The term 7rapodog 
is also, and more correctly, applied to the ode sung by the 
chorus on its entrance ; its occasional departure was called 
jUETavaoTacrte, its return, iTrnrapodog, its final exit, a<podoQ. 

9. The Chorus always took a part in the action of the 
drama, joining in the dialogue, through the medium of its 
Kopvfyaiog, or leader; thus according to Aristotle and Horace, 
the chorus was considered as one of the actors : — Kat tov 
X°P<> V ^£ %va StT vtto\o.(3uv tujv virGxpiTcuv kcu fioptov dvai 
tov oAou, kg! <jvvaywviZzG0at, (Arist.) and Horace defines 
its duties. A. P. 193. 

*' Actoris partes Chorus, officiumque virile 
Defendat : neu quid medios intercinat actus, 
Quod non proposito conducat, et hsereat apte, 
Ille bonis faveatque, et consilietur amice : 
Et regat iratos, et avnet peccare timentes. 
Ille dapes laudet mensas brevis ; ille salubrem 
Justitiam, legesque, et apertis otia portis — 
Ille tegat commissa, deosque precetur et oret, 
Ut redeat miseris, abeat Fortuna superbis." 

The director (fiyEfxwv) of the Chorus was he who super- 
intended the melody and the corresponding attitudes ; the 
lizGoyopoQ was that member of the groupe who acted in 
immediate subordination to the KOpv(paToc, and who sus- 
tained the response with him, when the division took place 
into 7]fiiy6pia. 

The Chorus frequently contributed to the progress of the 
action, by active offices of friendly attention and assistance, 
for example — in the Philoctetes and Ajax of Sophocles. 
Sometimes, again, the Chorus was divided into two* groups, 
(this division was called Sixopia, each half, ?? i utx°i°' ov > and 

* We meet in Plutarch with a tripartite division of the chorus (*p w'a)» 



108 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

their responsive songs, avTiy/)pia,) each with a Coryphgeus 
stationed in the centre, who narrated some event, or com- 
municated their plans, fears, or hopes ; and sometimes, on 
critical occasions, several members of the Chorus, in short 
sentences, gave vent to their feelings ; between the acts, the 
Chorus poured forth hymns of praise, moral precepts, la 
mentations, or predictions — all more or less interwoven with 
the course of the action. 

10. The inferior stations in the Chorus were called 
viroKoX-rria ; to guide the movements of the arolxot, lines, 
called ypamfiaii were marked out along the floor of the 
orchestra ; the person, who arranged the choristers in their 
proper places, was called ^opooYKTrjc, or xoponoioQ ; the 
trainer of the Chorus, was called xopodilauKaXog — the first 
tragic Poets were their own \opo%ic)a<jKa\oi ; thus iEschylus 
taught his chorus figure-dances. 

11. Whilst* engaged in singing the choral odes to the 
accompaniment of flutes, the performers moved through 
dances according with the measure of the music, passing, 
during the strophe, across the orchestra, from right to 
left, during the antistrophe, back, from left to right, and 
stopping, at the Epode, in front of the spectators ; some 
writers attribute the original of these evolutions to a mys- 
terious imitation of the motion of the heavens, stars and 
planets ; it does not appear that they confined themselves 
to any strict rules, with regard to the division of strophe, 
antistrophe, and epode, as we find the choral songs consist- 

* Ancient Tragedy, on account of its music and dance, has been 
compared to our Opera, but wrongly : in Tragedy, the poetry was the 
main affair, the mu*ic and dance being subservient and subordinate ; in 
the Opera, the poetry is subservient and subordinate to the music, dance, 
decoration, &c. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 109 

ing sometimes of a strophe only, sometimes of a strophe 
and antistrophe — sometimes of all three. 

12. The ancients surpassed the moderns in nothing more 
than in dancing ; they expressed every passion of the mind 
by the movements of the body ; the dance was slow and 
solemn, or quick and lively, according to the occasion ; 
that of Tragedy was called fycjulAaa, of Comedy, KopSa'i, of 
the Satyric Drama, rriKivvig — the various figures of each 
were called a^fiara ; in the l}ifxL\ua prevailed the ~b fiapv 
Kai aejivov ; the KopEa^ was of a low and licentious nature, 
(cpopTiKog.) so much so that Aristophanes, on one occasion, 
prides himself for having excluded it, and thus it appears 
that it was not universally employed in Comedy ; the 
GiKivvig, was a rapid, lively dance (raxyTaTii), full of frolic 
and gambol, but without any expression of feeling ; these 
were the three dramatic dances ; Lyric poetry had three 
corresponding dances — i) Trvppix^h v yvfivoTraiSiicrj, and i) 
viropXW aTlK V — the nrs ^ resembled the Satyric, the second 
the Tragic, the third the Comic ; besides these six, Athe- 
nseus enumerates upwards of fifty different species. 

13. The music of the chorus was of varied kind, accord- 
ing to the nature of the occasion, or the taste of the Poet. 
The Doric* mood, of a grave and lofty nature, was origi- 

* The Doric and Phrygian modes, or, as Aristotle calls thorn, the 
Hypodorian and Hypophrygian, were not suited to the Chorus, the 
former being lofty and sustained, the latter suited to the action of the 
Drama ; hence it would seem that they belonged to the Actors — the 
Mixo-Lydian suited the Chorus, which was composed of the inferior 
members of society, and to which strains of a more subdued and lowly 
expression were suited ; hence it follows, that the Tragedy of the 
Greeks was a system of chant throughout— corresponding' with our 
Opera, though differing from it in many particulars, as before stated. 



110 THE GRECIAN DKAMA, 

nally preferred for Tragedy — it was sometimes combined 
with the Mixo-Lydian, a pathetic mood, and therefore 
adapted to mournful subjects : the Ionic mood, also, was, 
from its austere and elevated character, well suited to Tra- 
gedy ; Sophocles was the first who set choral odes to the 
Phrygian mood : Euripides introduced the innovations of 
Timotheus, for which he is severely attacked by Aristo- 
phanes in the Ranse. 

14. The Odes of ancient Tragedy divide themselves into 
two classes — viz. odes of the entire chorus, and odes sung 
by individuals : of the former class there are two species ; 
the parode or first song of the entire chorus, at its en- 
trance ; and the stasimon, which includes all those choral 
odes that are without anapaests and trochees — all that the 
chorus sings after it has taken possession of the stage, and 
is incorporated into the action ; the stasima divide the tra- 
gedy into acts, form pauses in the action, allow opportunity 
for the entrance of new characters, and indicate perceptible 
lapse of time ; they serve also to impart to the mind that 
collecteclness and lofty self-possession which the ancient 
tragedy labours to maintain, even in the midst of the strong- 
est excitement of the passions ; Hermann says, that the 
stasimon was so called, not because the chorus stood still 
while they sang it, which they did not, but from its being 
continuous, and uninterrupted by anapaests or trochees, 
and, as we should say, steady : it seems to be derived from 
cn-aerie, a set, araaig jueAwv, a set of choral songs, i. e. a 
strophe, antistrophe, and perhaps an epode. The odes 
sung by individuals are of three species — either odes sung 
by one or other of the Dramatis Personse alone, (Va airb 
GK7)vr\Q f or fioviodiai,) or odes divided between, the acting 
persons and the chorus, called ko^hoi, because lamentations 



THE GBECIAN DKAMA. Ill 

for the dead generally formed the subject of the odes sung 
by the actors and chorus together — (the KOfifiot are not 
found in all tragedies) or thirdly, portions sung by the 
chorus, but in single voices, or in smaller divisions of their 
whole body. The Commatica, and the species allied to them, 
are component parts of the individual act or section (so 
that they may often be replaced by dialogue, of which they 
do indeed but form a lyrical climax, as it were), and, as 
such, contribute essentially to the conduct of the action by 
their lively expression of will and purpose, passionate de- 
sire, conflicting or accordant inclinations and endeavours. 

15. The Choruses were all trained with the greatest care 
during a length of time before the day of contest arrived ; 
each tribe felt intensely interested in the success of the 
one furnished by its choragus ; and the choragi themselves, 
emulating each other, spared no expense in the instruction 
and equipment of their respective choruses — they engaged 
the most celebrated choral performers, employed the ablest 
Xopodi.da(JKa\oi to perfect the choristers in their music and 
dancing, and provided sumptuous dresses and ornaments 
for their decoration. 

16. It is curious to trace the gradual extinction of the 
chorus — at first it was all — then subordinate to the dia- 
logue — then digressive, and ill-connected with the piece — ■ 
then borrowed from other pieces at pleasure — and so on — 
to the fiddles and the act tunes. The performers in the 
orchestra of a modern theatre are little aware that they 
occupy the place, and may consider themselves as the lineal 
descendants of the Ancient Chorus. 

1 7. The claim of the Dorians to the invention of Tragedy 
and Comedy derives support from the use of the Doric 
Dialect in the Choruses — this Doric, however, is different 
from that of Pindar or Theocritus, 



112 THE GRECIAN I>KAMA, 

18. The prolixity of the Tragic chorus was sometimes 
trying to the patience of an Athenian Audience ; this is ri- 
diculed by Aristophanes in his opviOzg, v. 758, where the 
chorus of birds, descanting on the convenience of wings, 
tell the spectators, that if tliey had wings, whenever they 
were hungry, and tired of the tragic chorus, they might fly 
home and eat their dinners, and fly back again when the 
chorus was over. 

19. The Prologues of Euripides, inartificial, consisting of 
explanatory narration, addressed directly to the spectators, 
remind us of the origin of the Drama, when it consisted 
only of a story told between the acts of the Dithyrambic 
chorus, which was then the main body of the entertain- 
ment; almost all his Tragedies open in this manner, (as his 
Hecuba, Iphigenia, Bacchse, &c.) reminding us of the sin- 
gle actor of Thespis announcing his own name and family, 
and telling the simple tale of his achievements or misfor- 
tunes ; of all the openings of Sophocles, that of the Tra- 
chinise resembles most the manner of Euripides ; and of 
iEschylus, that of the Persse ; in two plays only, (the Persse 
and Supplices of JEschylus) the chorus itself performs the 
part of the prologue. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA:. 113 

SECTION III. 

-4 udience,— Theatre,— Scenic Dresses. 

Audience — 1 . Originally no admission money was demanded ; 
the Theatre was built at the public expense, and therefore 
was open to every individual ; the consequent crowding and 
quarrelling for places amongst so vast a multitude was the 
cause of a law being passed, (501, B.C.) which fixed the 
entrance price at one drachma each person : this regulation, 
debarring as it did the poorer class from their favorite en- 
tertainment, was too unpopular to continue long unrepealed; 
Pericles, anxious to ingratiate himself with the common- 
alty, at the suggestion of Demonides of CEa, brought in a 
decree which enacted that the price should be reduced to 
two oboli ; and farther, that one of the magistrates should 
furnish out of the public funds these two oboli to every ap- 
plicant.* From a passage in Demosthenes, in which he 
defends himself for procuring seats in the theatre for the 
Macedonian ambassadors gratis, it would seem that the 
price for an ordinary seat was then still two oboli, whilst a 
drachma was demanded for the best places. 

Some of the ancient Scholiasts state the admission-price 
to have been only one obolus, and that the other was added 
to procure the poor spectator refreshments ; this idea, how- 
ever, seems incompatible with the words of Demosthenes. 
The sum thus spent was drawn from the contributions ori- 

* Provided his name was registered in the book of the citizens 

{>.r,%ictpyjxlv yf'tfA/AvTiTov) ; the admission money was called Ojwpocov. 

i 



Il# THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

ginally paid by the allies towards carrying on war against 
the Persians. By degrees, the expenses of the festivals 
engrossed the whole of this fund, and that money which 
ought to have been employed in supporting a military force 
for the common defence of Greece, was scandalously lavished 
away on the idle pleasures of the Athenian people. This 
measure proved most ruinous to the Athenian republic ; yet 
so jealous were the multitude of any infringement on their 
theoric expenses, that, when an orator had ventured to 
propose the restoration of the fund to its original purpose, 
a decree was instantly framed, making it death to offer any 
such scheme to the general assembly ; Demosthenes twice 
cautiously endeavoured to convince the people of their folly 
and injustice, but finding his exhortations were ill-received, 
he was constrained reluctantly to acquiesce in the common 
resolution. 

2. The spectators hastened to the theatre at the dawn of 
day to secure the best places, as the performances comn 
menced very early. After the first exhibition was over, the 
audience retired for a while, until the second was about to 
commence ; there were three or four such representations 
in the course of the day, thus separated by short intervals : 
during the performance the people regaled themselves with 
wine and sweetmeats. Athenseus tells us, that having 
breakfasted they went to the theatre and sat crowned, that 
wine and sweetmeats were handed round to them, that they 
gave wine to the Chorus, as they entered, and to the actors 
when they were going out ; this account does not agree 
with that of Aristophanes, who tells us that they came to 
the theatre " impransi," and had nothing to eat while sitting 
there. (Aves, 785.) The richer spectators had cushions 
placed on the marble benches for their accommodation. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 115 

8. The two oboli each paid at the entrance seem to have 
gone to the apxirtKTuv, called also OtarpwvriQ and Qzarpo- 
7ra>Ar?c, who in return for this engaged to keep the theatre 
in repair ; he paid also a certain rent to the state, and per- 
haps furnished the machinery, for the choragi appear to 
have supplied little more than the dresses. This master of 
the works, or lessee of the theatre, used sometimes to give 
an exhibition gratis, and sometimes to distribute tickets 
which entitled the bearer to free admission. Among the 
relics from Pompeii and Herculaneum, in Naples, is an ob- 
long piece of metal about three inches in length and one 
in breadth, inscribed 'Atcrx^Xoc, which probably was a 
ovufioXov, or ticket* for free admission. 

4. The number of spectators in the Athenian Theatre 
amounted occasionally to thirty thousand ; this immense 
assembly were wont to express in no gentle terms their opi- 
nion of the piece and actors ; murmurs, jests, hootings, 
and angry cries, were directed in turn against the offend- 
ing performer. They not unfrequently proceeded still fur- 
ther, sometimes compelling the unfortunate object of their 
dissatisfaction to pull off his mask and expose his face, that 
they might enjoy his disgrace ; sometimes^ assailing him 
with every species of missile, they drove him from the 
stage, and ordered the herald to summon another actor to 
supply his place, who, if not in readiness, was liable to a 
fine ; on the other hand, when they happened to be grati- 
fied, the clapping of hands, and shouts of applause were as 
loud as the expression of their displeasure. In much the 

* Any citizen might buy tickets for a stranger residing- at Athens. 
f Even in the time of Machon, 230, B.C. it was customary to pelt 
a bad performer with stones. 



116 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

same manner the dramatic candidates themselves were 
treated. 

•5. It has been a question whether women were present 
at dramatic representations. That they formed a part of 
the tragic audience is a point sufficiently established; what- 
ever may be the truth respecting the story of the Furies 
in JEschylus, the story itself could not have been invented, 
had Grecian females never visited the theatre. Pollux has 
recorded the term Ocarpta, a spectatress ; Plato says ex- 
pressly that women composed part of the audience in tra- 
gedy ; Aristophanes and his Scholiast say the same ; these 
testimonies are sufficient to prove the presence of females at 
the tragic exhibitions. Whether the same was the case at 
the comic is doubtful ; Aristophanes, on one occasion, and 
one only, (Pax. 963,) speaks as if part of his auditors were 
females; it has however been suggested, "that their pre- 
sence might possibly be feigned to give a handle for the 
coarse joke contained in the passage ;" at any rate, this 
single passage, exceptionable as it is on the score of posi- 
tive evidence, will scarcely outweigh the argument on the 
other side of the question, which is drawn from the general 
silence of Aristophanes with respect to the presence of 
women at his representations. In his jparabases, accus- 
tomed as he is to distinguish his audience according to their 
several ages, and otherwise, we never remark any mention 
of females ; in his numerous side-blows at individuals anion »• 
the spectators, not one is aimed at a woman ; yet he would 
not have been likely to neglect the many opportunities for 
raillery and witticism which the presence of females would 
have given him. 

It is then certain that females were present at the exhi- 
bition of Tragedy, most 'probable that they were not at the 
exhibition of Comedy. 



THE OSECIAN DRAMA. 117 

6. The Greeks suffered the real to play its part with the 
fictitious in the illusion ; thus, in the Eumenides, the spec- 
tators are twice addressed as an assembled present multi- 
tude, once by the Pythia, where she calls upon the Greeks 
to come forward to consult the oracle ; and again, when 
Pallas by the Herald commands silence during the trial 
about to be held — so also the frequent addresses to the 
Heaven, Sun, &c. were probably directed to the real Heaven, 
Sun, &c. 



Theatre — 1 . In the first stage of the art no building was 
required for its representations ; in the country the Diony- 
sian performances were generally held at some central point, 
where several roads met, as being most easy of access, and 
convenient in distance to all the neighbourhood ; in the city 
the public place was the ordinary site of exhibition. But 
when, at Athens, tragedy began to assume her proper dig- 
nity, and dramatic contests were becoming matter of na- 
tional pride, the need of a suitable building was soon felt. 
A Theatre of wood was erected. This edifice fell beneath 
the weight of the crowds assembled to witness a represen- 
tation, in which iEschylus and Pratinas were rivals. It 
was then that the noble theatre of stone was erected within 
the Arji/aTov, or enclosure dedicated to Bacchus. In this 
theatre the master-pieces of iEschylus, Sophocles and Eu- 
ripides were exhibited ; here too did Aristophanes pour 
forth his wit and sarcasm ; and here were seen the splendid 
contests of the Cyclian choruses. 

2. The only detailed accounts left us on the Athenian Thea- 
tre are two — that of Vitruvius, the architect of Augustus, 
and that of Julius Pollux, his junior by two centuries ; from 
these accounts, aided by incidental hints in other authors, 



118 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

and a reference to the several theatric remains in Greece, 
Asia-Minor, Italy, and Sicily, Genelli, an able scholar and 
architect of Berlin, has drawn up a very satisfactory state- 
ment, from which the following sketch is taken : — Writers 
of antiquity have thrown obscurity on the subject, by not 
handling it with that degree of accuracy and precision, 
which were necessary for the information of posterity, though 
not so for their contemporaries, to whom it was so well 
known ; and modern critics have done the same by con- 
founding together the Greek and Roman Theatres, which 
differ most essentially in many parts. 

3. The Dionysiac Theatre of Athens stood on the south- 
eastern side of the eminence crowned by the noble build- 
ings of the Acropolis; this situation on the slope of a hill 
obviated the necessity of those immense substructions, 
which amaze the traveller in the remains of Eoman Thea- 
tres ; this was the reason for selecting this situation, and 
not* for the purpose of commanding a view of fine rural 
scenery, since the height of the stage wall must have shut 
out the prospect beyond it from one-half of the spectators. 
That this was the site of the Theatre of Bacchus, is 
strongly attested by the choragic monuments still existing 
in that quarter, and Stuart was mistaken when he thought 
he had discovered its ruins in those which are now judged 
to have belonged to the Odeion of Herodes. The hollow 
in the slope of the hill still indicates a place where the seats 
of the spectators must have been excavated. Though the 
seats however rose on a hollow slope, it is impossible to 

* And yet they sometimes took pains to select a beautiful situation ; 
thus the Theatre of Tauromenium in Sicily was so situated, that over 
the back ground of the scenes there was a view of ^Etna. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 119 

imagine the orchestra, the dromos, and the stage, with its 
flanking walls, to have been situated any where but on even 
ground at the bottom. 

4. To have a proper idea of the theatre, we may conceive 
it to be divided into three principal departments ; one for 
the actors, which they called the scene ; another for the 
spectators, under the general denomination of the theatre; 
and a third called the orchestra, allotted to the music, 
mimes, and dancers. To determine the situation of these 
three parts, and consequently the disposition of the whole, 
we may observe, that the annexed plan consists on one side 
of two semicircles, drawn from the same centre, but of dif- 
ferent diameters, and on the other of a rectangle of the 
same length, but of half the breadth ; the space between 
the semicircles was allotted to the spectators, the rectangle 
at the end to the actors, and the intervening area in the 
middle to the chorus : thus the entire outline of the build- 
ing must have been that of a semicircle with its arch up- 
wards, joined to a pretty broad parallelogram at its base. 
Between the apex of the semicircle and the rocks of the 
acropolis above it, some communication must have been 
opened; yet it must have been very narrow, in order to pre- 
vent the escape of the sound from below. 

5. Thus from the level of the plain a semicircular exca- 
vation gradually ascended up the slope of the hill to a con- 
siderable height ; round the concavity seats for an audience 
of thirty thousand persons rose, range above range, so 
formed that a line drawn from the top to the bottom would 
touch the extremities of every one of them, each seat being 
at such a distance from that placed over it, that the feet of 
the persons above could not touch those who were below : 
these seats thus descended from the top in concentric semi- 



120 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

circles, which diminished as they approached and embraced 
the protruding crescent of the orchestra : the curvature of 
the seat-rows thus inclined the faces of all the spectators 
towards the centre of the building, so that the terminating; 
seats on the right and left were duly opposite to each other, 
like those of our boxes nearest the stage. The tiers of benches 
were divided into two or three broad belts, by passages termed 
^mSw^uara, (called in the Roman theatres " preecinctiones,") 
and again, transversely into wedge-like masses, called ndpa? 
&C, (in Latin, " cunei,") by several flights of steps radiating 
upwards from the level below to the portico above ; the 
lower seats, as being better adapted for seeing and hearing, 
were considered the most honorable, and therefore appro- 
priated to the magistrates, priests and senate ; this space 
was named BqvXsvtikov ; the body of the citizens were pro- 
bably arranged according to their tribes ; the young men 
of distinction sat apart in a division, entitled ' EQvfiiKov ; 
there were also some npozcpiai, or first seats allotted to 
those who had distinguished themselves by any signal ser- 
vices to the common-wealth ; such in process of time be- 
came hereditary, and were appointed for particular families; 
all these were very near to the orchestra. The sojourners 
and strangers also had their places allotted them, and were 
admitted at only one of the festivals. 

6. The spectators 1 or upper part of the theatre was in- 
closed by a massive semicircular wall, and within it a portico, 
or rather two or three porticos, (according to the number 
of stories, the most magnificent theatres always having 
three,) one raised above another, where the women were 
admitted, being the only places covered from rain and heat; 
the rest were entirely open, (as the amphitheatres in Spain,) 
not even covered with an awning as in the Roman theatres, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 121 

and all the representations were in the day time ; these por- 
ticos were adorned with statues, and surmounted by a balus- 
traded terrace ; they also served as a station for the ser- 
vants attending their masters to the play, and together 
with the Eumenic portico afforded a ready shelter for the 
audience during a sudden storm. Behind the whole mass 
of stage-building was an open space, covered with turf, and 
planted with trees ; around this ran the Eumenic portico, 
which had an open walk in the middle of it, and was the 
place of rehearsal for the chorus. 

7. Twelve feet beneath the lowest range of seats lay a 
level space, partly enclosed by the sweep of the excavation, 
and partly extending outwards right and left in a long paral- 
lelogram; this was called the "OpxnaTpa. In the middle of 
the basis line of the orchestral crescent, stood a small plat- 
form, square, and slightly elevated, called GujueA?/,* which 
served both as an altar for the sacrifices that preceded the 
exhibition, and as the central point, to which the choral 
movements were all referred ; it was so called, because in 
shape it resembled an altar ; that part of the orchestra, 
which lay without the concavity of the seats, and ran along 
on either hand to the boundary wall of the theatre, was 
called Apofiog — the Roman iter ; its shape was that of a 
rectangle ; the wings, as they may be termed, of this ojoo^oc, 
were named UapoSoi, and the entrances, which led into them 
through the boundary wall, were entitled Elaodoi — the 
Roman aditus. The Thymele was sometimes made to re- 
present a tomb, as in the Persae and the Ohoephoroe of 

* As the Thymele lay in the very centre of the whole building-, it 
was very significant, that the chorus, which was in fact the ideal repre- 
sentative of the spectators, had its place in the very spot where all the 
radii from their seats converged into one point. 



122 THE GRECIAN BBAMA. 

iEschylus. In the Roman theatre, the senators and chief 
magistrates sat in the orchestra, where, finding the incon- 
venience of the level, it was remedied by raising the seats 
a little above each other. 

8. After enclosing the spectators and the interior orches- 
tral crescent in one vast semicircle, the walls of the theatre 
ceased to describe a curve, and ran on straight to join the 
right and left extremities of the Paraskenia, or flanking 
buildings of the stage ; of course they thus formed the two 
ends of the dromos, and the continuity of the masonry 
was interrupted only by the two grand entrances to the 
theatre ; those entrances were covered above. On the side 
of the orchestra opposite the amphitheatre of benches, and 
exactly on a level with the lowest range, and so twelve feet 
above the orchestra, stood the platform of the 2(ajt»i, or 
stage, in breadth nearly equal to the diameter of the semi- 
circular part of the orchestra, and communicating with the 
Sfjo/uioQ by a double flight of steps. The stage was cut 
breadthwise into two divisions. The one in front called the 
Aoystov, (in Latin, pulpitum,) was a narrow parallelogram 
projecting into the orchestra. This was the station of the 
actors when speaking, and therefore was constructed of 
wood, the better to reverberate the voice ; the front and 
sides of the Aoyaov, twelve feet in height, adorned with 
columns and statues between them, were called TaYiro^Krjvia; 
the term to vkogk^viov, was sometimes applied to the 
room* beneath the stage ; the Roman pulpitum was wider 
than the Greek AoycTov, because all the performers were 
obliged to act on it, the orchestra being given to the sena- 
tors ; on the other hand, the Grecian orchestra was larger 

* Here, probably, were placed the instruments that accompanied 
the actors throughout the drama, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 123 

than the Roman ; the Greek actors were called Scenici, 
and the Choristers, Thymelici, from the places where they 
performed. The part of the platform behind the Aoyuov 
was called the npoaKi'iviov, and was built of stone, in order 
to support the heavy scenery, which was placed there. The 
Proscenium was backed and flanked by lofty buildings of 
stone- work, as high as the wall on the outside of the highest 
benches, representing externally a palace-like mansion, and 
containing within withdrawing-rooms for the actors and 
receptacles for the stage-machinery ; a saloon in the first 
floor of the stage-house contained the actors, whilst they 
stood ready to enter on their parts ; their dressing-rooms 
lay at its extremities; and adjacent to and in front of those, 
the apartments for the stage machinery. From the building 
behind there were three entrances to the stage, and the 
rank of the characters was marked by the door from which 
they entered ; the highly-ornamented portal in the middle, 
with the altar of Apollo on the right, was assigned to roy- 
alty, and called (3aGi\ziog ; the two side entrances, called 
by Vitruvius, hospitales, to inferior personages ; the 7rpwTa- 
yiovLGTriQ entered through the centre door, the SevTspayw- 
vtaTriQ through the right door, and the rpiTaywvioTr\g through 
the left door. In a similar way, all the personages who 
made their appearance by the Ewodog on the right of the 
stage, were understood to come from the country, whilst 
such as came in from the left were supposed to approach 
from the town. On each side of the Proscenium and its 
erections ran the UapaaKrjvia, high lines of building, which 
contained spacious passages into the theatre from without, 
communicating on the one hand with the stage and its con- 
tiguous apartments, on the other, through two halls, with 
the flapoSot of the orchestra, and with the portico which 
ran round the topmost range of the seats. 



124 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

9. Such was the construction and arrangement of the 
great Athenian Theatre ; its dimensions must have been 
immense ; if thirty thousand ^persons could be seated on its 
benches, the length of the Apo/xog could not have been less 
than four hundred feet, and a spectator in the central point 
of the topmost range must have been three hundred feet 
from the actor in the Aoyziov. 

10. The scenery of the Athenian stage corresponded 
with the magnificence of the theatre ; the age and city 
which witnessed the dramas of a Sophocles, the statues of 
a Phidias, and the paintings of a Zeuxis, possessed too 
much taste and talent to allow of aught mean and clumsy 
in the scenery of an exhibition so highly valued. 

The massive buildings of the Proscenium were well 
adapted for the generality of tragic dramas, where the 
chief characters were usually princes, and the front of their 
palace the place of action ; but not unfrequently the locality 
of the play was very different ; out of the seven extant 
pieces of Sophocles there are but four which could be per- 
formed without a change of Proscenium ; the OEdipus 
Coloneus requires a grove, the Ajax a camp, and the Philoc- 
tetes an island solitude. In Corned}', which was exhibited 
on the same stage, the necessity of alteration was still more 
common. To produce the requisite transformations, deco- 
rations were introduced before the Proscenic buildings, 
which masked them from the view, and substituted a pro- 
spect suitable to the play ; these decorations were formed 
of woodwork below — plastic imitations of objects in wood ; 
above were paintings* (Kara/3A/j,uara) on canvass, resembling 

* As in the Prometheus, where Caucasus is represented; anil in the 
Philoctetes, where the scene was the desert island of Lesbos, with its 
rock and cavern. 



^HE GRECIAN DRAMA. 125 

our scenes, and like them so arranged on perspective prin- 
ciples, as to produce the proper illusion. If Genelli be 
right, they spared not even the introduction of natural 
trees, to adorn the landscape of GEdipus Coloneus. Vitru- 
vius says there were three kinds of scenes — the Tragic, 
Comic, and Satyric — the Tragic was ornamented with co- 
lumns and statues and other regal things — the Comic had 
the appearance of private houses — the Satyric was orna- 
mented with trees, caves, mountains, kc. 

11. The stage machinery appears to have comprehended 
all that modern ingenuity has devised, and the dimensions 
of their theatre were favourable to illusion. At the back 
of the stage, at the three entrances, were the triangular 
machines for the scenery, called by the Greeks, UspiaKrqt, 
which, as they turned on their own axis, might be shifted on 
any occasion, and exhibited three different views or changes 
of scene ; these were not used in Tragedy, which required 
but one scene throughout, but probably at the end of it, 
to prepare the exhibition of the Comedy or Mime, which 
frequently succeeded each other, perhaps two or three times 
on the same day. The scene, according to Servius, was either 
versilis or ductilis, the change being effected either by re- 
volution, or by withdrawing ; the versilis would be turned 
by the iripiaKToi. The echeea were round concave plates of 
brass, placed under the seats of the spectators, so disposed, 
by the most exact geometrical and harmonic proportions, as 
to carry the words of the actor in the most distinct manner 
to the farthest part of the building — the size of the theatre 
rendered them necessary. The* QtoXoyuov was a platform? 

* ^Eschylus in the Prometheus introduces Oceanus riding on a 
griffin through the air, and the whole chorus of the Oceanides, consist- 
ing of fifteen persons, in a winged chariot. 



126 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

surrounded and concealed by clouds, where the Deities were 
shown in converse. The Aiwpai were a set of ropes, sus- 
pended from the upper part of the Proscenic buildings, 
which served to support and convey the celestial beings 
through the sky. The Mrixavri was a crane turning on a 
pivot, with a suspender attached, placed on the right or 
the country-side of the stage, and employed suddenly to 
dart out a God or a Hero, before the eyes of the spectators, 
there keep him hovering, till his part was performed, and 
then as suddenly withdraw him. The Vepavog was some- 
thing of the same sort, with a grapple hanging from it, used 
to catch up persons from the earth, and rapidly whirl them 
within the circle of scenic clouds; — Aurora was thus made 
to carry off the dead body of Memnon. The Bpovrslov 
was a contrivance in the vttqgk{}viov, or room beneath the 
AoysTov, where bladders full of pebbles were rolled over 
sheets of copper, to produce a noise like the rumbling of 
thunder. The liepavvoGKOTruov was a place on the top of 
the stage buildings, whence the artificial lightning was 
made to play through clouds, which concealed the operator. 
When the action was simply on earth, there were certain 
pieces of frame-work, the Skott^, Taxoc, Uvpyog and 
<PpvKTwpiov, representing, as their names import, a look-out, 
a fortress -wall, a tower and a beacon. These were either set 
up apart from the stationary erections of the Proscenium, 
or connected so as to give them, with the assistance of the 
canvass scene, the proper aspect ; here a sentinel was intro- 
duced, or a spectator, supposed to be viewing some distant 
object. 

The *H.p.iKVK\iov was a semicircular machine placed, when 
wanted, on the country-side of the stage, which enclosed 
a representation of the sea or a city in the distance, towards 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 127 

which the eye looked through a passage between cliffs, or 
an opening among trees. The Srpo^aoy and 'H^otjoo^uov 
were constructed like the 'HjutKu/cAiov, but moved on a 
pivot, so that by a sudden whirl the object they presented 
might be shown or withdrawn in an instant. They were 
employed to exhibit heroes transported to the company of 
Deities, and men perishing in the waves of the sea, or the 
tumult of the battle. 

The 'E£woT|oa or 'EkkukX^o (the latter expression is more 
usual) denotes the platform or small wooden stage, which, 
in passages of the Drama, where the interior of a house 
had to be exposed to the spectators'' view, was pushed or 
wheeled forward (iZuOuv, IkkvkXuv) through the great portal 
in the stone-screen (aKr}vrj) at the back of the stage, and 
afterwards wheeled back (tlcrKUJcAai/), when the interior 
had to be again withdrawn from view ; thus, in the Agamem- 
non, there is suddenly displayed to view (by means of the 
Eccyclema), the royal bathing apartment, with the silver 
laver, the corpse enveloped in the fatal garment, and Cly- 
tsemnestra, besprinkled with blood, and holding in her hand 
the reeking weapon, still standing with haughty mien over 
her murdered victim. Several instances of the Eccyclema 
occur in the Greek Tragedies, all of which agree in this, 
that the scenes brought before the eyes of the spectators 
are such as would naturally take place within doors ; accord- 
ingly, it is not employed when it would be as easy and pro- 
per for the persons who are the subjects of such scenes, to 
come out to view from the stage-doors— -it is only em- 
ployed, when the nature of the case makes it unavoidable — 
it is only when the persons or objects are unable of them- 
selves to come out, that the spectator is, in a manner, 
conducted in. In almost all the instances of its use, it is 



]2S THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

a scene of murder or bloody wounds which it brings to 
view ; most of them exhibit groupes of the living and dead, 
arranged according to the rules of art ; for in no other 
department did the Drama approximate so nearly to the 
province of Sculpture as in the Eccyclema. 

Such were some of the devices for the scenes of heaven 
and earth ; but as the Ancient Dramatists brought their 
personages frequently from Tartarus, other provisions were 
required for their due appearance. Beneath the lowest 
range of seats, under the stairs, which led up to them from 
the orchestra, was fixed a door, which opened into the or- 
chestra, from a vault beneath it, by a flight of steps, called 
Xapwvioi »cX/'uaK£c; through this passage entered and dis- 
appeared the shades of the departed ; thus in iEschylus, 
the ghost of Clytaemnestra rushes in by this way to awaken 
the Eumenides. Somewhat in front of this door and steps, 
was another communication by a trap-door with the vault 
below, called 'A vairkafia'. by means of which any sudden 
appearance like that of the Furies was effected. A second 
9 A vairUfffia was contained in the floor of the AoytTov, on the 
right, or country-side, whence marine or river Grods as- 
cended, when occasion required. In Tragedy the scene 
was rarely changed, in Comedy frequently ; to conceal the 
stage during this operation, a curtain called AuAam, wound 
round a roller beneath the floor was drawn up (not let 
down, as it now is) through a slit between the Aoyuov and 
Proscenium. 

12. This Theatre was commenced in 01. 70.1, but the 
building was not completed till about 01. 1 00 ; it was, how- 
ever, made use of during this interval, though not com- 
pleted; we cannot suppose that the plays of the great 
Tragedians were still exhibited in a wooden Theatre, whilst 



THE GEECIAN DRAMA. 129 

even the insignificant Epidaurus had obtained from the 
hands of Polyclettis, a contemporary of Phidias, a magni- 
ficent Theatre. The more ancient name of the Aoyuov 
was 'Otcpifiag. The Greek Theatres were, in the strict sense 
of the word, temples, the several parts of which had their 
origin in religious ceremonies. The upper apartments of 
the buildings at the back and flank of the stage were termed 
'*ETri<jKr)via ; in them the movements were executed by which 
the phenomena of stage-exhibition were represented. The 
AiovvGictKOi rexvlrai were the performers employed in the 
scenic representations — the French have preserved this ap- 
pellation in their term " Artistes." 

13. The curtain was not at first usual on the Attic stage. 
In the dramas of iEschylus and Sophocles, the stage, at 
their opening, is evidently empty, and requires no prepara- 
tions which need to be withdrawn from the eyes of the 
spectators ; but in many pieces of Euripides, and perhaps 
in the CEdipus Tyrannus, the scene is peopled at once, and 
presents a stationary group, which could not well have been 
formed under the eyes of the spectators. 



Scenic Dresses, &c. — 1 . The actors of Greece never ap- 
peared on the stage without masks. In the first age of the 
Drama, they disguised their faces with wine-lees, or a spe- 
cies of pigment called Barpax^tov, also with false-hair, &c. 
Masks, however, were soon invented, according to Suidas, 
by Choerilus — to Horace, by iEschylus — Aristotle confesses 
his ignorance of the inventor : the mask was first termed 
TTpocrwiTov, and subsequently TrpoaioTrziov ; they were of 
various kinds, to express every age, sex, country, complex- 
ion, &c. That used in tragedy was a kind of helmet, cover- 
ing the whole head, representing not only the face, but the 

K 



1.30 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



beard, hair, and eyes, and in the women's masks, all the or- 
naments of the cap ; being made of different materials, 
according to the several improvements it received from time 
to time. The first masks were made of the leaves of a 
plant, to which the Greeks on that account gave the name 
of 7rpocrw7riov. Virgil mentions them as made of the bark 
of trees, " oraque corticibus sumunt horrenda cavatis," and 
Pollux tells us they were made of leather, lined with cloth ; 
the most perfect were of wood, executed with the greatest 
care, by sculptors of the first rank, who received their di- 
rections from the Poet ; the tragic masks had large expanded 
mouths, and were generally copied from the busts or statues 
of the persons represented, thus conveying an exact re- 
semblance of them, which gave an air of probability to the 
whole. The mask which represented ghosts was called 
fxopiLLoXvKuov, and that for Furies, yopyovuov. The argu- 
ments in favour of masks are the following ^=*-(l) they 
gave an opportunity to the few actors of playing several 
parts without being discovered ; (2) the large opening of 
the mouth was so contrived as to make the voice more loud 
and distinct, a necessary matter in their very large theatres ; 
(3) in those large theatres they were necessary, in order to 
enlarge the features, as the cothurnus and the KoXirtvfia, to 
enlarge the height and size of the actors — (4) at such a 
distance the natural expression of the eyes and counte- 
nance must, at all events, have been lost. The face, how- 
ever, is the best index of the mind, and thus the Greeks 
sacrificed propriety, truth and reason, to magnificence and 
vanity. It is said by Plutarch and other historians, that 
Athens spent more in dramatic representations than in all 
her wars. 
2, As the Ancients thought that their Heroes and Demi* 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 131 

gods far surpassed the size of common mortals, they raised 
them by the cothurnus ; it was the ancient Cretic hunting 
boot ; for tragic use it was soled with cork to the thickness 
of three inches ; it was laced up in front as high as the calf, 
which kept the whole tight and firm in spite of the enor- 
mous sole ; it was not worn by all tragic characters, nor on 
all occasions ; thus Agamemnon is introduced by iEschylus 
not in buskins, but in sandals ; the cothurnus was similar 
to the high cork shoe, bound with tin or silver, worn by the 
Spanish women, called a chioppine, which, it appears from 
Shakspeare, was used on our own stage — " Your Ladyship 
is nearer heaven than when I saw you last, by the altitude 
of a chioppine." (Hamlet, Act II. Scene 7.) 

o. The sandal raised by a cork sole was called tjifiarog* 
The ladies and chorus had also the buskin, but that of the 
latter had only an ordinary sole ; these buskins were of 
various colours ; white for ladies, red for warriors, purple 
for Bacchus ; slaves wore the low shoe, called the sock, which 
was also the shoe worn by the comic actor. 

4. The KoX-irwfxa, or stuffing, swelled out the person to 
heroic dimensions — it added expansion to the chest and 
shoulders, and muscular fulness to arm and limb. 

5. The dresses were very various. There was the \tT<l)v 
TToSripiiQ for Gods, heroes and old men ; that for hunters, 
travellers, and young nobles and warriors, when unarmed, 
was shorter, and sat close to the neck. The girdle for 
heroes was that called the Persian. It was very broad, 
made of scarlet stuff, and fringed at the lower edge. 
Goddesses and ladies wore one broad and plain, of purple 
and gold. The avpjj.a or ovprog, was a long purple robe for 
Queens and Princesses, with a train which swept the 
ground. The \\xjng was a short train with short sleeves 



132 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

drawn over the x iT <*>v 7rQ§r7p//e. Slaves wore the IjjLariov, a 
kind of short shirt, or the £?<u/ife, a shirt with only a sleeve 
for the right arm ; the left was bare to the shoulder. Herds- 
men and shepherds wore the di<j>Qipa, a goatskin tunic with- 
out sleeves. Hunters had the Ifxanov and a short horse- 
man's cloak of a dark colour. The palla or mantle for 
heroes was ample enough to cover the whole person ; so 
large also was the ladies 7rt7rAoy, of fine cloth embroidered; 
matrons wore this peplum fastened veil-like on the head ; 
virgins, clasped on the shoulder. The peplum of a Queen 
was like that assigned to Juno, decked with golden stars, 
and fastened behind the diadem ; warriors wore every variety 
of armour, with plumed helmets. The dress of the Gods 
was particularly splendid ; Bacchus, for instance, was re- 
presented in a saffron-coloured inner vest, rich with purple 
figures and golden stars, and falling in many folds to the 
ground ; over this inner robe was thrown the Palla of pur- 
ple also, and such was the colour of his buskins. There 
were also broad embroidered girdles made use of (navxaXio- 
rriptg) — sitting high on the breast — the head-dress was 
called oyKog. As in the Dionysian ceremonies, so also in 
Tragedy, there was but little distinction between the male 
and female apparel. In speaking of heroes, the Tragedians 
very often call their dress ntirXoe, a garb never worn at that 
period by males in common life. In the ancient Mosaics, 
one is constantly in danger of confounding Heroes with 
Heroines, unless where the old equestrian chlamydes are 
thrown over the long, bright -coloured tunics, or weapons 
added, or masks characterised by some marked difference. 
The Comic dresses were, of course, chiefly those of ordi- 
nary life, except during an occasional burlesque upon the 
Tragic equipment. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 133 

6. From the splendor of the dresses, &c. &c. furnished 
by the \opr\yoi, the words xopriyiio and xopriyia were used 
to denote splendor of equipment and liberality of expen- 
diture, and this extended application of the words passed 
to the inspired writers ; thus in 1 Pet. iv. 11, we meet with 
a fine application of the verb to the Divine source of spi- 
ritual strength, supplying those with it who set themselves 
apart for the office of the ministry — u rig diaKovd, wg 1%, 
laxyog^ rjg ^opriyu 6 Seog. The compounds lin\opr]yiii) and 
tmxopriy'ia, occur also with special emphasis in particular 
cases, and in none more so than when they are used to ex- 
press the all-powerful operation of Divine grace, as in 2 
Cor. ix. 10, where St. Paul borrows an image from Isaiah, 
the fertilizing influence of moisture on the earth, whereby 
it is enabled to supply nourishment in abundance {l-rriyopr\- 
yiiv) to the husbandman : or again, advancement in spiri- 
tual graces, as in the well-known exhortation of St. Peter, 
2 Ep. i. 5, lTTi)(opr]yi]<jaTe Iv ry tt'igtu^ &c, where the mean- 
ing is of greater force than the one conveyed in our version ; 
or finally, the preserving and uniting power exerted by 
Christ on behalf of his visible Church, as in Col. ii. 19. 
With these texts, we may compare Phil. i. 19, wherein 
lirixopr}yia is used in a sense of like emphasis to that men- 
tioned above. No appellation also was more common among 
the Greek ecclesiastical writers than x°P°£ was f° r the body 
of true believers united under one Head ; examples of this 
occur frequently in Chrysostom ; thus in his sixth Homily 
on the Acts we meet with 6 Kopv^atog rov [.latcaptov \opov — 
and KOpvtpcuog rwv airoGToXuw, tov \opov twv jita^rjrwv, &c. 
These designations lead us to contemplate the Christian 
community in all ages as essentially one, and deriving its 
union from the Divine Choragus, who dispenses his gifts 
freely and liberally. 



134 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



7. To return to the mask, which bore so prominent a 
part in the dress of the actor ; it was also often made of 
bronze or copper, and so constructed as to give great power 
to the voice ; this was effected by connecting it with a tire 
or periwig {tt^vlk^ (ptvatcr), hence (pzvaKi&tv, to deceive) 
which covered the head, and left only one passage for the 
voice, which was generally circular, (the os rotundum,) so 
that the voice might be said to sound through it — hence 
the Latin name for a mask — persona a personando. The 
greatest possible care was bestowed upon the manufacture 
of masks, and there was a different kind for almost every 
character. Julius Pollux divides the tragic masks alone 
into twenty-six classes ; the Comic masks were much more 
numerous. He specifies only four or five kinds of Satyric 
masks. Most of the male wigs were collected into a fore- 
top, (oyKog) which was an angular projection above the 
forehead, shaped like a A, and was probably borrowed from 
the Kpk)[3v\oQ of the old Athenians. The female masks, 
however, were often surmounted in a similar manner. The 
object of this projection was to give the actor a height pro- 
portioned to the size of the theatre, for which the cothur- 
nus was also intended. A male and a female mask may be 
seen in the British Museum, the former has a foretop nearly 
as high as all the rest of the mask. The masks were coloured, 
and the art of enameling or painting bronze was much 
esteemed in the time of JEschylus. 



CHRONOLOGY 



THE GREEK DRAMA. 



B.C. 


Olym 


708 


18.1. 


693 


21.4. 


610 


42.3. 


591 


45.3. 


562 


51.3. 


519 


57.4. 


546 


58.3. 


544 


59.1. 


535 


61.2. 


525 


63.4. 


523 


61.2. 


520 


65.1. 


519 


65.2. 


511 


67.2. 


508 


63.1. 


500 


70.1. 


499 


70.2. 


495 


71.2. 


490 


72.3. 


487 


73.2. 



The Drama. 



Archilochus. 
Simonides of Amorgus. 
Arion and Stesichorus. 
Solon. 
Susarion. 



Hipponax, an Ephcsian, a writer of 
Iambics, flourished in the times of 
Croesus and Solon. 

Theognis. 

Thespis first exhibits. 

JEschylus born. 

Choerilus first exhibits. 

Melanippides, a dithyrambic writer, 
flourished. 

Rirth of Cratinus, the Comic Poet. 

Phrynichus first exhibits. 

Institution of the x°P°C uv8p5w. 
Lasus of Hermione, the ditbyrambist 

Epicharmus perfects Comedy, long be- 
fore Chionides, in Hiero's reign, 
lived 97 years. 

JEschylus, aged 25, first exhibits. 

Birth of Sophocles. 

JEschylus at Marathon, tet. 35. 

Chionides first exhibits. 



Contemporary Persons and Events. 



Gyges of Lydia. 



Pisander of Corinth. 



Usurpation of Pisistratu?, B.C. 560. 
Accession of Cyrus, B.C. 559. 

Death of Thalaris. 



Anacrcon, Ibycus, Pythagoras. 
Cambyses conquers Egypt. 



Pindar born the year after. 

Expulsion of the Pisistratida?, B. C. 
510— of the Tarquins, B.C. 509. 

Heraclitus and Parmenidcs, the philo- 
sophers, and Hecatams, the historian. 

Birth of Anaxagoras. 

Ionian war commences, and Sardis burnt 

Miletus taken, B.C. 491. 

Miltiades. 

Dinolochus, a Syracusan or Agrigcn- 
tine. Myles, a Comic Poet, exhibits 
at Athens, 



136 



CHRONOLOGY OP THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



B.C. 



Olym. 



484 


74.1. 


480 


75.1. 


477 


75.4. 


476 


76.1. 


472 


77.1. 


468 


78.1. 


458 


80.3. 


456 


81.1. 


455 


81.2. 



451 
450 

448 
447 
441 

440 

437 

436 

435 

434 
431 

430 

429 
428 
427 
426 



81.3. 

82.1. 

82.2. 

83.1. 

83.2. 



85.1. 

85.4. 
86.1. 

86.2. 

86,3. 
87.2. 

87.3. 

87.4. 
88.1. 
88.2. 
88.3. 



The Drama. 



iEschylus gains his first prize. 
Birth of Euripides. 

The Nao-ot of Epicharmus represented. 

Phrynichus victor with his Phcenissae, 
Themistocles Choragus. 

^schyli Phineus, Persa?, Glaucus, 
Prometheus. 

First Victory of Sophocles, probably 
with his Tptin6\eiJ.og crcnvptKog— 
iEschylus goes to Sicily. 

iEschyli 'OpeoTe/a, again retires to Sicily. 

.iEschylus dies— set. 69. 

Euripides exhibits his Ue\id6eg — eet. 25, 
and gains the third prize. 

Aristarchus of Tegea, the Tragic Poet, 
and Cratinus the Comic poet flourished 

Ion of Chios begins to exhibit. 

Crates, the Comic Poet, exhibits. 

Cratini 'ApxiAox '* 

Acheaus Eretriensis, the tragedian. 

Euripides gains the first prize. 

A decree to prohibit comedy. 

The prohibition of comedy is repealed. 

Cratinus conquers. — Three victories of 
his are recorded after the repeal of 
the decree, viz., B.C. 425, 421 & 423. 

Phrynichus, the comic poet, exhibits. 

Lysippus, the comic poet, conquers. 
Euripidis Mrjdeta, Qi\oKTr\T>l£, Aiaivg, 

QtpHTTdi. 

Hermippus, the comic poet, ridiculed 
Pericles. 

Eupolis exhibits— Born B.C. 446. 

Euripides 'InnoKvrog . 

Aristophanis ^anaXeTg. 
i 
Arktophanis BafivXwvioi* 



Contemporary Persons and Events. 



Birth of Herodotus, also of Achasus, 
a tragic writer, 

Thermopylae, Salamis— Leonidas, Aris- 
tides, Themistocles— Pherecydes, the 
historian— Gelon of Syracuse. 

Hiero succeeds Gelon, B.C. 478. 

Simonides, zet. 80, .'gains the prize 
' Av6pwv Xopw. 

Birth of Thucydides, B.C. 471. 



Socrates born ; Mycensa destroyed by 
the Argives ; death of Simonides, 
B.C. 467. 

Anaxagoras— Birth of Lysias. 

Herodotus at Olympia. 

End of the Messenian and Egyptian 
wars— EmpedoclesandZeno— 1'ericlcs 



Bacchylides, the lyric poet flourishes— 
Archelaus the philosopher. 

Death of Cimon, B.C. 449. 

Battle of Coroncea. 

Herodotus and Lvsias go with the 
colonists to Thurium, B.C. 413. 

The Samian war, in which Sophocles is 
colleague with Pericles. 

Isocrates bom, B.C. 436. 



Sea-fight between the Corinthians and 
Corcyrasans. 

Andocides, Mcton, Aspasia, Callias. 

Attempt of the Thebans on Plataaa — 
Hippocrates. Aristomenes, the comic 
poet. 

Plague at Athens. 

Siege of Platrea— Birth of Plato. 

Anaxagoras dies— Plato the comic poet 

Surrender of Platcea— Gorgias of Leon- 
tium. 

Tanagra. 



C'HEONOLOGY OP THE DRAMA* 



137 



B.C. 



425 
424 
423 

422 

421 
420 

419 
416 

415 

411 

414 

413 

412 
411 



Olym 



83.4, 



89.! 



398 



89.4. 
90.1. 

90.2. 
91.1. 

91.2. 

91.3. 
91.3. 

91.4. 

92.1. 
92.2. 

92.4. 
93.1. 

93,3. 



The Drama. 



405 


93.4 


405 


93.4. 


404 


94.1. 


401 


94.3. 



95.2. 



Aristophanes first with the 'Axapvelg, 
Cratinus second with the Xet/j.aC6fj.evoi, 
Eupolis third with the Noi//a»ji/<ai. 

Aristophanes first with the 'in-TreT^, 
Cratinus second with the Xdrupoi ; 
Aristomenes third with the 'OAocpvpfioi 

Cratinus first with the Uvrivti. Amein- 
sias second with the Kdwoc ; Aristo- 
phanes third with the^S™ Ne0e\cw. 

Aristophanis Z<pTw £ & d devrepai 

Eupolidis Mapinag et KoXanes. 

Eupolidis Alr6\vKo S et 'AcrrpdrevTOi, 
Pherecratis "A ypwi. 

Aristophanis Eip,) vr }. 

Agathon gains the tragic prize. 

Xenocles first ; Euripides second, with 
his Tpu>6£, 'AXc^dvdpog, UaXaniidnc, 
and Zicrvcpcxj. 

Aristophanis 'Ap<ptdpao£ (elgAt'jvaia.) 

Ameipsias first ; Aristophanes second 
with the"o pi ^ £ ; Phrynichus third 

(ei£ aCTTL'). 

Hegcmonis r^ai'TO/iax'a— first who 
introduced parody on the stage. 

Euripidis 'Avdpo/xeda. 

Aristophanis Avaiarpdri) and Qev- 
[xo<popid£ouaai. 

Sophocles first with the <I>t\oKT»;Tn£. 

Euripidis 'Opearng— Aristophanis U\ov- 
rog. 

Euripides dies, aet. 75— Expense of the 
dramatic exhibitions divided between 
two Choragi. 

Sophocles dies, aet. 90 — before the Le- 
nsean festival. 

Aristophanis hdrpaxoi, first; Phrynichi 
Movaai, second ; l'latonis K\eo<j)wv, 
third. 

Sannyrion flourished. 

Sophocles 'Oibl-rrovQ hirl KoXwvw, exhi- 
bited by his grandson Sophocles, son 
of Ariston, wtio first exhibited in his 
own name, B.C. 396, gained twelve 
victories. 

Astydamas, a tragic writer, exhibits. 



Contemporary Persons and Events. 



Cleon at Sphacteria.— Sixth year of the 
Peloponnesian war. 



Xenophon at Delium— Amphipolis 
taken from Thucydides by Brasidas. 



The year's truce with Lacedaemon— . 
Alcibiades begins to act in public af- 
fairs. 

Brasidas and Cleon killed at Amphi- 
polis.— Cratinus dies. 

Truce for fifty years with Lacedaemon. 

Treaty with the Argives. 

Thirteenth year of the war. 
Capture of Melos. 

Archippus, the comic poet, gains his 
single prize— Expedition to Sicily. 



Destruction of the Athenian army 
before Syracuse. 

Lesbos, Chios, and Erythras revolt 

The 400 at Athens. 



Birth of Antiphancs, a poet of the 
middle comedy. 

Arginusa? — Dionysius becomes master 
of Syracuse — Philistus, the Sicilian 
historian. 

(Egospotamos — Conon. 
The Thirty at Athens. 



Xenophon with Cyrus— Ctesias, the his- 
torian — i'lato — Telestes gains a di- 
thyrambic prize. 



Philoxenus, Timotheus and Telestes", 
dithyrambic poets, flourished. 



138 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE DRAMA, 



B.C. 


Olym. 


The Drama. 


Contemporary Persons and Events. 


393 


96.4. 


Xenarchus. the Mimographus in the 
Court of Dionysius, during the Rhe. 
gian war. 




392 


97.1. 


Aristophanis , 'EK<\n(Tid£ov(Tai. 


Agesilau^ -Plato the comic poet. 


388 


98.1. 


Aristophanis UXovrog fi'— now only 
one prize for comedy — expense of 
tragedy also retrenched. Two tragic 
xopnfai between B. C. 394 and 388, 
cost 5000 drachmas— in B.C. 410, one 
cost 3000. 




387 


98.2. 


Antiphanes begins to exhibit, a?t. 20. 


Peace of Antalcidas. 


3£6 


93.3. 


Theopompus, last poet of the old comedy 




376 


101.1. 


Eubulus, Araros, son of Aristophanes, 
and Anaxandricies, comic poets, wri- 
ters of middle comedy. 




372 


102.1. 


Astydamas, the younger, gains the first 
prize in tragedy. 




368 


103.1. 


Aphareus, the tragedian, exhibits. 




367 


103.2. 


Dionysius gains the tragic prize with the 
Xvipa. "Luropog. 




356 


106.1. 


Alexis, the comic poet. 


Alexander born— Dionysius expelled— 
Timothcus, the musician, dies. 


352 


105.1. 


Theodectes of Phaselis, the tragic poet. 




3)0 


IC5.H. 


Demosthenes x°pi7°£' 




249 


105.4. 


From a passage in Demosthenes it ap- 
pears there are still three annual fes- 
tivals of Bacchus, at which Dramatic 
pieces were presented— T a ev ne<patei, 
ra .\>]vaca—T(\ kv aarei — at this time 
the expense of tragic exhibitions less 
than that of the x°P"£ uvdpwv 




318 


106.1. 


Heraclides, the comic poet. 


Demosthenes against Midias— Philip 
and the Olynthian war. 


342 


109.3. 


Birth of Menander— lived 51 years. 


Timoleon at Syracuse— Isocrates— 
Aristotle. 


C37 


110.4. 


Lycurgus, the orator, restored the cre- 
dit of comic exhibitions at the Le- 
nasan festival, and enacted honors for 
the three great tragic poets. 




336 


111.1. 


Amphis, the comic poet, still exhibits, 
viz. the Kovpig. 


Philip assassinated. 


335 


11!.?. 


Philippines, the comedian, one of the 
six selected as standards of the new 
comedy. 




3:3 


111.4. 


Theodectes was dead when Alexander 
visited Phaselis, where he honored 
his memory. 




332 


112.1. 


Stephanus, the comic poet. 


Siege of Tyre. 



CHRONOLOGY OP THE DRAMA, 



139 



B.C. 



Olym 



327 

324 

321 

320 
316 
307 
304 



291 

2 SO 



283 



230 
200 



112.3. 
113.2. 

114.1. 

114.4. 

115.1. 
116.1. 

118.1. 
119.1. 



122.2. 
122.4. 

124.2. 

125.1. 
137.3. 
145.1. 



The Drama. 



Philemon exhibits, a little earlier than 
Menander— -lived 97 years. 

'AyJ/v, Spuria traTupJKov, exhibited in 
Alexander's camp, on the banks of 
the Hydaspes, after the revolt of Har. 
palus. 

Timocles still exhibits — ridicules the 
leading orators for taking bribes from 
Harpalus. 

Menandri 'Op7>j— with which he was 
successful, a?t. 21. 

Diphilus of Sinope. 

Alexidis"l7T7ro£. 

Demetrius, the comic poet. 

Archedippus/ Philippides, Anaxippus, 
comic poets, flourished — Philippides 
ridiculed the honors paid to Deme- 
trius Poliorcetes, through the in- 
fluence of Stratocles the demagogue. 

Death of Menander. 

Posidippus begins to exhibit, the last 
writer of new comedy. Rhinthon 
flourished. 

Sopater of Paphos still continues to ex- 
hibit comedy, flourished more than 
forty years. 

Sotades.J 

Macho the comedian. 

Apollodorus the Carystian. 



Contemporary persons and Events. 



Darius 6lain. 



Alexander dies- 
B.C. 322. 



•Demosthenes dies, 



Epicurus— Agathocles. 



Arcesilaus. 



War with Pyirhus. 



Plautus dies. 



CHAPTER IV. 



MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 



1. The CEdipus Rex and Philoctetes of Sophocles have 
been most admired by modern critics, the former for the ar- 
tificial complication of the plot, the latter for the masterly 
delineation of character ; but each of his tragedies is re- 
splendent with its own peculiar excellence. In the Anti- 
gone, we have heroism exhibited in the most purely femi- 
nine character ; in the Ajax, the manly sense of honor in 
all its strength ; in the Trachinian women, the female levity 
of Dejanira is beautifully atoned for by her death, and the 
sufferings of Hercules are worthily depicted ; the Electra 
is distinguished by energy and pathos ; and the CEdipus at 
Colonos by a touching mildness and peacefulness. Schlegel 
prefers the last, because it is most expressive of the personal 
character of Sophocles. 

2. The difference between the characters of JEschylus 
and Sophocles is strikingly seen in the Eumenides, and the 
CEdipus at Colonos, as these two pieces were composed with 
similar intentions ; in both, the object is to set forth the 
glory of Athens, as the holy habitation of Justice and 
Humanity ; in the patriotic and free-spirited iEschylus, this 
is effected by a judicial procedure ; in the pious Sophocles, 
by a religious one, even the death-devotion of CEdipus ; 
the Furies are very prominent in the Eumenides, in the 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 141 

CEdipus they are kept in the back-ground, and only men- 
tioned by euphemistic designations. 

3. The Antigone and Ajax of Sophocles refer to the 
sacred rites of the dead and the importance of burial ; in 
the former, the whole action turns upon this ; in the latter, 
this alone gives a satisfactory conclusion to the piece. 

4. The Trachinian women is the most imperfect of the 
plays of Sophocles. 

5. Schools of Dramatic Art were formed at Athens, the 
pupils in which used to assist their masters in composing 
their plays ; thus Euripides was assisted by Cephisophon. 

6. Sophocles mourned for the death of Euripides, and 
on the exhibition of one of his plays, shortly after that 
event, did not allow his actors the usual ornament of the 
wreath. 

7. Euripides abolished the essence of Tragedy; that 
essence consisted in the prevalence of the idea of Destiny, 
in the ideality of representation, and the significance of the 
chorus. In Euripides, Destiny is seldom the invisible spirit 
of the Poetry, in his hands it degenerates into chance. 
The mutual subordination of ideal elevation, character, and 
passion, which we find observed by Sophocles, and also in 
the sculpture of the Greeks, he has exactly reversed ; to 
hirn passion is the most important, then he thinks of cha- 
racter, then occasionally he seeks to add grandeur and dig- 
nity, though he frequently makes his characters needlessly 
vile, for instance, his Menelaus in the Orestes ; and thus 
Sophocles said that " he himself formed men as they ought 
to be, Euripides as they are. r The Chorus, in his treatment 
of it, becomes for the most part, an extra-essential orna- 
ment ; its odes are often quite episodic, without reference 
to the action, with more glitter than sublimity. He fre- 



142 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

quently made use of the Parabasis, or address of the chorus 
to the audience, a privilege enjoyed only by the old Come- 
dians, and in so doing, so much forgot himself, that in the 
Danaides, he made the chorus, consisting of women, use 
grammatical inflexions which belong only to the male sex. 

8. In the accompanying music he adopted all the inno- 
vations of Timotheus, and chose tunes which were most 
suitable to the softness of his poetry ; in the same manner 
he proceeded in his treatment of the metres ; his versifica- 
tion is luxuriant, and flows over into anomaly ; and the 
same dissolute and unmanly character reveals itself in the 
rhythms of his choral odes. 

9. His object is always to be touching, and for this he 
not only violates propriety, but sacrifices the connexion of 
his piece ; with much parade of moral apothegms, the scope 
of his pieces, and the impression which they produce are 
sometimes very immoral ; thus his praise of riches in the 
mouth of Bellerophon, " if Aphrodite be glittering as gold, 
she well deserves the love of mortals" — this, as also the 
blasphemous language he makes Ixion use, he justified by 
saying they were both punished at the end of the piece ; his 
verse, rt y\(W bjiuiiox, v & <j>pr)v avivfiorog, expresses the 
" reservatio nientalis" of the casuists ; and another verse of 
his, " for sovereignty's sake it is worth while to do wrong," 
was frequently in the month of Caesar. Whilst he was the 
first to give importance to female characters, by making the 
wild passion of a Medea, and a Phaedra, the main subject 
of a Drama, he is notorious for his hatred of females. As 
he varied with much caprice from the commonly received 
mythology, there was a necessity for explaining this varia- 
tion in his Prologues, which makes the opening of his plays 
yery monotonous ; the alternation of single verse and verse 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 143 

he carries to an immoderate length ; and by the introduc- 
tion of long speeches, he sought to make his poetry enter- 
taining to the Athenians, by its resemblance to their fa- 
vorite occupation of pleading or hearing causes ; hence 
Quinctilian recommends him to the young orator. In the 
familiar tone of some of his speeches, and in his approx- 
imation to the ludicrous, as, for instance, in his description 
of the voracity of Hercules, he is a forerunner of the new 
comedy, the principal writers of which, Menander and Phi- 
lemon, admired him much, whilst Aristophanes on the other 
hand as much despised him ; he is, however, excellent when 
the subject leads mainly to pathos, and when the pathos it- 
self calls for moral beauty ; whilst inferior to Sophocles and 
and iEschylus, he is superior to those who followed him. 
The relative merits of the three Poets may be seen by com- 
paring their three plays which are extant on the same sub- 
ject, the avenging murder of Clytsemnestra by Orestes, viz. 
the Choephoroi of iEschylus, the Electra of Sophocles, 
and the Electra of Euripides ; the Electra of Sophocles is 
decidedly the best of the three ; that of Euripides is the 
worst even of his own extant plays. 

10. The Hippolytus is the best of Euripides 1 plays; the 
Bacclue holds the second place ; the Alcestis is the most 
moral. In the Hecuba and Hercules furens there are two 
wholly distinct actions carried on throughout each play ; 
in nine out of his eighteen tragedies a God must descend to 
untie the knot ; such pictures of universal woe, of the fall 
of flourishing families and states from the greatest majesty 
into the deepest distress, as those presented in the Troades, 
has probably obtained for Euripides from Aristotle, the 
name of the most tragic of poets. In his works we have 
three instances of ^ women sacrificed, who become affecting 



144 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



from their self-devotion, Iphigenia, Polyxena, and Macaria; 
the voluntary death of Alcestis and Evadne belong, in some 
measure, to the same class. The most amusing of all tra- 
gedies, and more like a comedy, is his Helena ; it is founded 
on the idea that Helen was left in Egypt, whilst the Greeks 
and Trojans fought for a phantom ; the Rhesus is disputed 
to be his, but it would seem to belong to Euripides, from 
the accurate description given in it of the starry heavens ; 
the chief value of his Cyclops is its rarity, it being the only 
Satyric Drama extant. 

11. Agathon was the first who forsook mythology, as the 
material of the Drama, and wrote Tragedies with purely 
fictitious names (one of which was called the Flower) ; which 
formed a transition to the newer Comedy. 

12. The Tragedies of the Alexandrine literati (if we may 
judge from the Alexandra of Lycopbron, the only one ex- 
tant) were very wretched. 

13. The old Comedy is the thorough antithesis to Tra- 
gedy — the parody of Tragedy, not merely of single pas- 
sages, but of the whole form of Tragic Poetry, even of the 
music, dance, and scenery. Tragedy is the highest earnest- 
ness of Poetry, and so directs the mental powers to one 
end ; Comedy is altogether sportive, and so consists in the 
seeming absence of purpose ; in Tragedy, the monarchal 
constitution is in force ; Comedy, on the contrary, is demo- 
cratic poetry ; in Tragedy, the animal nature of man is 
subordinate to the spiritual ; in Comedy, the spiritual to 
the animal ; Tragedy loves harmonious unity ; Comedy lives 
in chaotic confusion. Whilst the modern Comedy never 
rises above private and family life, the old Comedy was po- 
litical throughout, and therefore the Chorus, as representing 
the public, was essential to it ; the Chorus also serves to 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 145 

complete the parody on the tragic form, and contributes to 
the expression of festal mirth. The most remarkable pe- 
culiarity of the comic chorus is the parabasis, or address 
from the chorus to the spectators in the name of the Poet, 
and without the least reference to the subject of the Play ; 
the parabasis is at variance with the essence of dramatic 
representation, for, according to this, the Poet ought to 
disappear behind his characters, and these ought also to 
speak and act as though there w T ere no spectators ; its in- 
vention was probably occasioned by the circumstance, that 
the Comedians had not the abundant materials of the Tra- 
gedians for filling up the intervals during which the stage 
was empty, by odes full of sympathy and enthusiasm. The 
object of Tragic and Comic Poetry may be thus expressed: 
Tragedy, by painful emotions, elevates us to the most dig- 
nified views of human nature ; Comedy calls forth the most 
unrestrained mirth from a degrading contemplation of hu- 
man nature. Tragedy, being quite exhausted, died a natural 
death ; Comedy a violent one, being robbed by a sovereign, 
decree of its unbounded freedom ; it flourished as long, and 
no longer than Athenian freedom. 

14. The old Comedy being the intoxication of Poetry, 
the Bacchanalia of mirth, we may see why the Dramatic 
art was dedicated to Bacchus. The language of Aristo- 
phanes is pure Attic ; he observes the laws of metre no less 
strictly than the Tragedians ; he at first exhibited his 
Comedies in another person's name, and first appeared in 
his own character in his "Knights, v in which he attacked 
Cleon ; with the exception of this attack on Cleon, and of 
those on Euripides, his other plays are not directed against 
individuals ; his " Birds" is the most purposeless of all his 
plays, and therefore one of the most delightful ; he declares 



146 THE GEECIAN DRAMA. 

his " Clouds" to be his most elaborate composition, and yet 
it was twice unsuccessful ; he changes the scene in his 
" Peace" and in his " Frogs," even whilst the actors are on 
the stage ; the " Wasps" is the weakest of his plays ; of 
his plays, the " Knights" is most in the style of Cratinus, 
the " Birds" in that of Eupolis. 

15. The peculiarity of the Middle Comedy is made by 
some to consist in the abstinence from personal satire, and 
from the introduction of real persons ; though in many of 
the plays of Aristophanes the personages are fictitious, and 
there is no personal satire ; by others, in the omission of the 
Chorus ; perhaps, however, an accidental circumstance led 
to the omission of the Chorus ; it was a great expense to 
furnish the Chorus, when then Comedy ceased to be poli- 
tical, and was confined to private life, and thus lost its festal 
dignity, and was degraded into a mere amusement, the 
Poet no longer found any rich patrons who would furnish 
the Chorus. Platonius makes the Middle Comedy to be a 
parody of all serious poetry, whether epic or tragic, and 
gives as instances the CEolosicon of Aristophanes, and the 
Ulysses of Cratinus; but parody was much used by the 
authors of the old Comedy. The truth is, there may have 
been many intermediate degrees between the Old and New 
Comedy, but a transition from one species to another does 
not itself constitute a species. 

16. Euripides lowered the tone of Tragic Poetry from 
its ideal elevation, and came nearer to common reality, 
both in the characters and the dialogue ; he also aimed at 
conveying useful instruction on the proper conduct of civil 
and domestic life ; he was the forerunner of the New Comedy; 
apothegms of Euripides are even ascribed to Menander and 
vice versa. The New Comedy borrows a touch of earnestness 



d?HE GRECIAN DRAMA. 147 

from Tragedy ; it is a mixture of sport and earnest ; the 
place of Destiny in Tragedy is, in the New Comedy, oc- 
cupied by Chance ; its morality is the morality of prudence ; 
the old Comedy is fantastic, purposeless, and resolves itself 
into nothing ; the new Comedy has in common with Tra- 
gedy a formal complication, and unravelling of the plot ; 
like Tragedy, it connects the incidents as cause and effect, 
except that it takes the law of this connexion, as it exists 
in experience, whereas in Tragedy, it is referred to an idea ; 
Tragedy moves in an ideal world ; the old Comedy in a fan- 
tastic ; the new Comedy is a true picture of existing man- 
ners, a strict copy of reality. 

17. Versification would not seem to be essential to Co- 
medy ; that the Greeks wrote Comedy always in verse would 
seem the result of accident, sciz. from the great extent of 
their stage, in which, verse, from its more emphatic delivery, 
was more audible ; but the Mimes of Sophron, which were 
pictures of real life, in dialogues, were written in prose, and 
even in the versified Comedy, the language must, in its 
choice and combination of words, be, not at all, or very lit- 
tle, removed from that of common conversation. 

18. The new Comedy, being a composite species formed 
out of tragic and comic, poetic and prosaic elements, may 
include a variety of subordinate species, according as one 
or the other element preponderates in them ; if the Poet 
plays in sportive humour with his own inventions, the result 
is a farce ; if he confines himself to the ludicrous in situa- 
tions and characters, avoiding all serious matter, we have a 
pure comedy ; in proportion as the earnest tone prevails, it 
assumes the character of the instructive or affecting comedy; 
and from this but a step remains to the tragedy of common 
life ; thus, there are many touching passages in Terence, 
particularly the first scene of the Heautontimorumenos. 



148 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



19. A distinction is made between plays of character 
and plays of intrigue; a good comedy must always be both, 
otherwise it will either want intrinsic value or interest ; 
sometimes the one, sometimes the other may preponderate. 
In the characters of Comedy, there prevails either the 
Comic of observation, or the knowingly and confessedly 
Comic ; the former prevails in the finer Comedy, the latter 
in low Comedy or farce ; there is also a third, viz. the Comic 
of caprice. 

20. The morality of Tragedy is the morality of motives, 
the only genuine morality ; that of Comedy is the morality 
of prudence or utility. 

21. Although the new Comedy flourished only in the 
short interval between the end of the Peloponnesian war, 
and Alexander's first successors, the stock of plays cer- 
tainly extended to a thousand ; of these, only a few frag- 
ments remain in the original language; and in the Latin, 
twenty translations of Creek originals by Plautus, and six 
by Terence. The fragments are distinguished in versifica- 
tion and language by extreme purity, polish, and accuracy ; 
the Latin Comedians, on the contrary, are careless in their 
metre ; and their language, at least that of Plautus, wants 
cultivation and polish. 

22. The Epicurean Philosophy was best suited to Comedy, 
the Stoic Philosophy to Tragedy ; thus Menander greatly 
admired Epicurus. 

23. As the Creek stage lay under the open sky, and 
showed little or nothing of the interior of the houses, 
(except through the aid of the encyclema,) it necessarily 
had the street for its scene. The chief disadvantage of this 
arrangement was the restriction of the female characters of 
the drama ; the exclusion of the unmarried and virtuous 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 149 

women was inevitable, by reason of the retired life led by 
the female sex in Greece. 

24. The Cocalus of Aristophanes, his last play, was in 
every respect similar, and a prelude, as it were, to the plays 
of Menander. 

25. Whilst the new Comedy was a closer resemblance of 
real nature than the old, the masks of the new Comedy de- 
viated more widely from nature than those of the old ; loss 
of liberty was the occasion of this. Partial masks, cover- 
ing a part only of the face, and which must have had a very 
ludicrous effect, were used in Comedy. 

26. The ancient Tragedy and the older Comedy are now 
unattainable — cannot be imitated ; the new Comedy may 
be surpassed. 

27. A pestilence and not taste occasioned the introduc- 
tion of theatrical entertainments into Koine ; the Histriones, 
who were merely dancers, they borrowed from Etruria ; 
then oldest spoken Dramas, the Atellane* Fables, they 
borrowed from the Oscans, the original inhabitants of Italy; 
these Dramas were also called Saturse, or medleys ; Livius 
Andronicus, a Greek by birth, more than five hundred 
years after the building of the city, introduced Tragedy and 
the newer Comedy ; the old, from its nature, being inca- 
pable of being transplanted. The Eomans showed more 
genius for Comedy than for Tragedy. 

28. Xoble Eoman youths exhibited performances similar 
to the Atellane Fables, hence the regular actors in those 
Dramas were exempted from the disgrace attached to other 
actors, and also enjoyed an immunity from military service. 

29. The Eomans had also their Mimes; the Greek Mimes 
were dialogues written in prose, and not intended for the 

* From Atella, a town of the Osci. 



ISO THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

stage ; those of the Romans were composed in verse, were 
exhibited, and often delivered extempore ; the most famous 
in this department were Laberius,* a knight, who was com- 
pelled by Julius Caesar to act publicly in his own Mimes, and 
Syrus, the freedman of Laberius ; Horace disparages the 
Mimes of Laberius. 

50. The regular Comedy of the Romans was mostly 
galliata, that is, was exhibited in the Grecian costume, and 
represented Grecian manners ; such were the Comedies of 
Plautus and Terence : they had also a Comcedia togata, so 
called from the Roman garb, which was used in it ; Afranius 
is mentioned as the most famous author in this way; nothing 
of these Comedies remains, and it is uncertain whether they 
were original Comedies, or only Grecian Comedies, remo- 
delled to Roman manners ; the latter is more probable. 

51 . The management of the borrowed Greek Tragedy 
was much disarranged by the circumstance, that the Chorus 
had no place in the orchestra, but on the stage : Livius 
Andronicus also, in the Monodies, or those lyric parts 
which were to be sung by a single person, and not by the 
Chorus, separated the song from the Mimetic dance, so that 
the latter alone was left to the actor, the song being per- 
formed by a boy stationed beside the flute-player ; hence 
arose their pantomimes, the art of which attained to great 
perfection in the times of Augustus ; in this art, Pylades, 
Bathyllus, and Roscius were famous; Roscius frequently 
played without a mask, which the Greeks never did. 

* Laberius, in a prologue, which is still extant, complains touchingly 
of the disgrace thus inflicted on him. Though Caesar gave him a large 

sum of money, and invested him anew with the equestrian rank, which 
he lost by appearing as an actor, yet he avenged himself for the pro- 
logue, by awarding the prize against Laberius to Syrus, his former 

slave. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 151 

32. In the Tragic literature of the Eomans, two epochs 
may be distinguished; the older epoch of Livius Andronicus, 
Naevius, and Ennius, also of Pacuvius and Attius, both 
which last flourished awhile later than Plautus and Terence ; 
and the polished epoch of the Augustan age. The former 
produced none but translators of Greek w r orks ; the latter, 
original authors of Tragedy, one of the chief of whom was 
Asinius Pollio. 

S3. Only one specimen of the talents of the Romans for 
Tragedy has come down to us, viz. the ten Tragedies which 
pass under the name of Seneca, though most probably not 
composed by him ; they are very wretched productions, and 
never take a higher flight from the anapaests, than to a sap- 
phic or choriambic verse, the monotonous reiteration of 
which is very disagreeable. 

34. The modern division into acts, which was unknown 
to the Greek Tragedians, was occasioned by the omission of 
the chorus in the newer Comedy. 

35. The presence of the Chorus in Tragedy, officiating as 
no part of the Dramatis Persona?, but merely as spectators, 
involved this inconsistency, that when a deed of violence 
was to be acted, the chorus, instead of interfering to prevent 
the atrocity to which the perpetrator had made them privy, 
could only, by the rules of the theatre, exhaust their sorrow 
and surprise in lyric verses ; Bentley ridicules this in his 
farce called the Wishes. 

36. It was during the representation of a play composed 
by Hegemon, that the Athenians received intelligence of the 
defeat of their army at Syracuse ; spreading their mantles 
before their faces, they commanded the representation to 
proceed, and, thus veiled, attended till it was concluded. 

37. The Grecian Drama never lost its original devotional 



152 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

character ; when the audience were assembled, they under- 
went a religious lustration, and the Archons paid their 
public adoration to Bacchus ; the subjects of their Dramas 
were frequently religious; nor can we, should we disconnect 
it from religion, account for the emotions and terror excited 
by the apparition of the Furies in the Eumenides of iEs- 
chylus ; to prevent the recurrence of such tragical conse- 
quences, the magistrates passed a decree limiting the num- 
ber of the chorus. The Drama being religious, the actor 
wore a mask and dress exactly representing the God or 
Hero he personified ; this gave the appearance of reality to 
their performances. Moderns go to the theatre to be amused, 
to see and hear and admire the actor himself, rather than 
the character he sustains. 

38. Aristophanes is called the Father of Comedy. He 
resembles Rabelais in personal invective, indecent jests, and 
fanciful fictions ; his Comedy of the Birds may have sug- 
gested to Swift the idea of Gullivers Travels. 

39. By order of the oligarchy which ruled Athens, after 
the Peloponnesian war, Anaxandrides, a comic writer, was 
capitally punished, for parodying a line of Euripides, so as to 
infer a slight of the government; he was starved to death. 
The use of the chorus was also prohibited to Comic Authors, 
as their stanzas chiefly contained the offensive satire. 

40. We can better enjoy the Tragedies than the Come- 
dies of the ancients; the circumstances which excite sub- 
lime or terrific sensations are the same in all ages and coun- 
tries ; the force of Comic wit and humour much depends on 
time, circumstance, and manners. 

41. St. Paul is said to have borrowed a moral sentiment 
from Menander, viz. — " evil communications corrupt good 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 153 

42. The diminution in the size of the theatre, and the 
proximity of the audience in the orchestra to the actors, 
occasioned the disuse of the mask on the Roman stage : 
that the Roman theatres were small, appears from the fact 
of two theatres being placed back to back, and then wheeled 
round, with their audiences, so as to form an amphitheatre, 
in which the games of the circus succeeded the play ; actors 
were held in honor by the Greeks, in contempt by the Ro- 
mans ; this may have arisen from their confounding plays 
with the games of the circus, which were performed by gla- 
diators and slaves ; also from their contempt for Grecian 
literature and for foreigners of every description, as appears 
from the fact, that the Roman youth, who performed the 
Fabulse Atellanse — the farces of Italian* origin, were not 
rendered infamous by doing so. Some few actors rose to 
eminence at Rome, as Roscius, and Paris who was put to 
death by Domitian. 

43. The Trochaic tetrameter was originally the metre of 
the Greek Drama, as best suited to the saltatorial genius of 
the Poem at that time ; but when the dialogue was formed, 
the Iambic was used, being most colloquial ; as is clear from 
our common conversation falling frequently into Iambic 
verse : A. P. 79 ; as, however, the Trochaic measure was still 
occasionally admitted even in serious tragedy, particularly 
in Euripides, we might suppose it would be still more fre- 
quently used in the Satyric drama, an improved form of the 
old Trochaic Tragedy, with its chorus of dancing Satyrs ; 
it is therefore remarkable, that in the Cyclops, the only 
Satyric drama extant, written also by Euripides, not a sin- 
gle trochaic tetrameter is to be found. The plays in which 

* It is remarkable, that the Etruscan term for actor, histrio, has sur- 
vived in living languages even to the most recent times. 



154* THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

the greatest number of Trochaic lines are to be found, are 
the Persse of JEschylus, and the Iphigenia in Aulide of 
Euripides. 

44. The union of superhuman beauty with human truth, 
and of interior freedom with exterior necessity, forms the 
essence of Greek Tragedy. 

45. Not only the Drama, but all Poetry, and all the fine 
Arts, as Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, &c. &c. are tli8 
results of idol worship, of that principle, which degraded 
men into the worshippers of the works of their own hands. 
This principle is generally called the love of imitation ; it 
might rather be stated as that desire to express the abstract 
in the concrete, that wish to render the conceivable per- 
ceivable, which is the characteristic of an uneducated mind. 
The first abstract idea which presented itself to the mind 
was the idea of God ; unable to entertain the abstract notion 
of divinity, they called in the aid of art to bring under the 
controul of their senses the object of their thoughts ; the 
divinity thus anthropomorphized would need a dwelling 
place, hence the early improvements in architecture ; his 
worshippers would then attempt some outward expression 
of veneration, hence poetry arose ; the same feeling would 
suggest an imitation of the imagined sufferings or gladness 
of their Deity, and to this we owe the mimic dances of an- 
cient Hellas, and the first beginnings of the Drama. And 
hence it is that the fine arts attained to the highest excel- 
lence in those countries in which idolatry and polytheism 
have most prevailed, and were generally neglected by those 
ancient nations, whose religion was monotheism ; so much 
so, that when Solomon wished to build a temple, he was 
obliged to call in the aid of his idolatrous neighbours, 
(1 Kings vii. 13,) and probably there was some connexion 



THE GEECTAN DEAMA. 155 

between Solomon's patronage of the arts and his subse- 
quent idolatry. The Hindu Drama was also derived from, 
and formed a part of the religious ceremonies of Hin- 

dostan. 

46. In every Attic Tragedy there are two distinct parts, 

viz. — a set of choral songs, written in the Doric dialect, 
including almost every variety of metre ; and dialogues 
written in the ordinary language of the country, and con- 
fined to staid and uniform measures : these parts had dif- 
ferent origins and sprung up in different countries. 

47. In the earliest times of Greece, it was customary 
among the Doric states, viz. the Cretans, Spartans, &c. for 
the whole population of a city to offer thanksgivings to the 
Gods by singing hymns and dancing in the public places ; 
(hence perhaps the derivation of xopoq, viz. from yupog). 
The maintenance of military discipline was the principal 
object of the Dorian legislators, hence these hymns and 
dances were of a martial nature; the God they worshipped 
was a God of war, of music, and of civil government ; a 
Dorian political Deity ; his name 'AttoAAwv, (i.e.) 'AttIXXmv, 
the defender ; the inventor of the lyre, the original accom- 
paniment of choral poetry; and whose oracle at Delphi 
(the injunctions of which were called 6tf.uGTEg,ov ordinances,) 
was the regulator of all the Dorian lav/ systems. 

48. This intimate connexion of religion and war among 
the Dorians is shown by a corresponding identity between 
their chorus and their army ; they were drawn up in the 
same order, and the different parts in each were distin- 
guished by the same names. Good dancers and good fight- 
ers were synonymous terms ; those whose station was in the 
rear of the battle-array, or of the chorus, were in either 
case called \pi\eig, from not being so well dressed as those 



156 THE GRECIAN DEAMA. 

in the front-row ; and the evolutions of the one body were 
known by the same name as the figures of the other. It 
was owing to this conviction of the importance of musical 
harmony, that the Dorians termed the constitution of a 
state — an order or regulative principle, (ko<t/xoc). 

49. Music and dancing being thus first cultivated by the 
Dorian states, it follows that the introduction of choral 
poetry into Greece is due to them ; this is also evident from 
the fact, that the Doric dialect is preserved in the lyric 
poetry of the other Grecian tribes ; now the lyric poetry of 
the Greeks was not an offspring of the epos, but of the 
choral songs, and if the lyric poetry of the iEolians and 
Ionians was always (with the exception perhaps of Corinna's 
Boeotian choruses) written in the Doric dialect, the choral 
poetry, of which it was a modification, must have been 
Dorian also. With regard to Athens, it is evident that 
choruses were not instituted there, until the Athenians had 
recognized the Dorian oracle at Delphi, for some old Del- 
phian oracles are extant, particularly enjoining these Doric 
rites, which could hardly have been necessary, had they 
existed at Athens from the first. 

50. All dancing in ancient times was either gymnastic or 
mimetic ; it was gymnastic when intended merely as an ex- 
ercise, or as a preparation for certain exercises (and this 
was originally the nature of the Doric choruses) ; it was 
mimetic when it was designed to express some mental feel- 
ing, or to represent by corresponding gestures the words of 
the accompanying choral song : to the former species of 
mimic dances may be referred the Nomes and the Paeans,* 

* The Paean became Bacchic in the end, and was sometimes mixed 
up with the Dithyramb. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA." 157 

to the latter, the Hyporcheme. The Pyrrhic and Gymno- 
paedian dances belong to the second class of gymnastic 
dances: for in them an outward object only is imitated, and 
that too by way of preparation for the objects of imitation; 
the Pyrrhic dance was peculiarly Lacedaemonian, as was 
also the Gymnopaedia, a festival celebrated by the Spartans 
in honor of Apollo. The Pyrrich dance, also originally 
connected with the worship of Apollo, like the other ge- 
nuine Dorian music, and also played to with the lyre, was 
in later times, like the Castoreum* and other embateria, 
played to the flute, and is spoken of in connexion with the 
rites of Jupiter in Crete, and with those of the Dioscuri in 
Laconia ; this is easily accounted for : the Dorians always 
adopted, in some measure, the religion of the countries 
which they conquered ; they found in Crete a native Jupi- 
ter, whom they received into their creed, in Sparta national 
Achaean Deities, Castor and Pollux, whom they made the 
sons of Jupiter, and considered as the leaders of their 
armies. Now this was the function of their national God, 
Apollo ; and when they transferred his office to the Gods of 
the country, it was natural enough that they should transfer 
along with it the corresponding songs and dances. The 
lyre was the original accompaniment in the Cretan and 
Spartan marches, and the flute was substituted only because 
its notes were shriller and more piercing ; and the substitu- 
tion of the flute for the lyre in the Pyrrhic dances was the 
natural consequence of the relation subsisting between 
them and the military evolutions of the Dorians. The 
Gymnopaedian and the Pyrrhic were then Dorian gymnastic 
dances, but, though not, strictly speaking, mimetic, they 

* The Castoreum was only the accompaniment of the Pyrrhic 
dance. 



158 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

yet had some elements so nearly approaching to mimicry, 
that in the end they became Dionysian, and therefore, 
mimic dances, and in this case they were connected, in 
form, with the Hyporcheme, which was, as its name implies, 
a dance expressing by gestures the words of the accom- 
panying poem, and therefore strictly a mimetic dance. The 
Hyporcheme was of great antiquity ; it is alluded to by 
Homer in the description of the shield of Achilles, where 
a Cretan dance is described, in which young men and maid- 
ens are moving and singing in chorus, holding one another 
by the wrists, while two dancers lead off the song and move 
actively in the midst. The word used to express the func- 
tion of these actors (l^apxovTeg), and the name given to 
them (KvfiiG>Tr)Tripe)i shew that they were hyporchematic 
dancers. This branch of choral poetry being Cretan, was 
also connected originally with the worship of Apollo, though 
subsequently introduced into the worship of Bacchus by 
Pratinas, and into that of Minerva by Bacchylides. These 
three sorts of choral dances had each its representative in 
the dramatic poefcry of a later age, as has been before 
stated ; the pyrrhic corresponding to the satyric, or g'iklvviq, 
both being rapid ; the gymnopsedic to the tragic or ejujuiXeia, 
both being solemn ; and the hyporchematic to the comic or 
KOjoSa^, both being merry. 

This similarity, combined with the evidence given above 
of the employment of these three dances in the worship of 
Bacchus, shews that in them we are to look for the origin 
of the lyric element of the Attic drama ; it may next be 
inquired how the worship of Bacchus was introduced into 
the Dorian states, and how choruses instituted in honor of 
Apollo came to be used in the celebration of religious rites 
consecrated to another Deity. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 159 

51. The Dorians, an essentially warlike people, were not 
likely to invent an elementary worship, which is the usual 
idolatry of tillers of the soil ; it therefore, at first sight, 
appears strange, that Apollo, their national deity, should be 
so often represented as the god of the Sun, and, therefore, 
the chief of a system of elementary worship. The fact, 
however, may easily be explained. The Dorians, as before 
stated, were used to incorporate with their own the religion 
of a conquered country ; examples of this have been given; 
another is the Hyacinthia, an ancient festival connected 
with the elementary worship of the iEgidse, of which Apollo 
was made the object ; now the Dorians worshipped along 
with Apollo, a female form of that god, called by the same 
name (but with a different termination) and invested with 
the same attributes ; this may have arisen from the division 
of the nation being originally two-fold, for they were not 
always fpt%aineg, but at first consisted only of the two 
branches of the family of JEgimius, the Dymanes, and the 
Pamphylians; and the Heracleids were not till afterwards 
incorporated among them. In the elementary worship of 
the Pelasgians and Achseans, there were also two divinities 
similarly related ; these were the Sun and the Moon, wor- 
shipped under the names of "HA<oc and SeA^ur), (related 
names, like uAr? and Sylva,) and by the Pelasgian old-inha- 
bitants of Italy, as well under names connected with the 
Greek, viz. Sol and Se (luna), as under the names Janus or 
Dianus, and Diana. ("Efcaroc and 'Ekcityi were also their 
names.) In Greece, however, the original names of these 
divinities early fell into disuse, and were rather applied to 
the natural objects themselves, than to the deities whom 
they were supposed to typify, and Bacchus or Dionysus was 
adopted as a new name for the Sun -god, and Deo or Demeter 



160 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



for the goddess of the Moon. That the origin of these 
deities was ungrecian cannot be doubted ; their worship 
was probably derived from Thrace, or from Tyre, or most 
probably from Egypt. Connected in many of their attri- 
butes with the old elementary worship of the Pelasgians, 
they were at length blended and confused with the gods of 
the country. Dionysus was the wine-god ; Deo, the fertile 
earth from which the vine sprung up ; how natural then, 
was the transition from the god of the vine to the sun to 
whose influence its growth was owing ; but if he ascended 
from earth to heaven, it was necessary that his sister deity 
should go with him, and so Demeter was translated to the 
Moon, and ruled amid the lights of night. Indeed, Bacchus 
himself is sometimes represented as a night -god, and in 
Sophocles he is invoked as the choragus of the fire-breathing 
stars ; thus Bacchus and Demeter were the representatives 
of those two heavenly bodies, by which the husbandmen 
measured the returning seasons, and as such are invoked 
by Virgil at the commencement of the Georgics ; they also 
represented the earth and its productions ; and were, in the 
third place, the presiding deities of the under-world. This 
also may be easily explained. The Greeks were wont to 
consider the cause of any thing, as also in some measure the 
cause of its contrary ; thus Apollo was the cause and the 
preventer of sudden death ; Mars caused and cured the 
madness of Ajax ; Bacchus, the bright and merry God, is 
also the superintendent of the orphic or black rites ; the 
God of life and light, he is also the God of death, and the 
ruling power in the nether regions. 

It was to be expected that mimicry should enter largely 
into the worship of Bacchus, and the mirror which was 
given to him by Vulcan, was probably an emblem of the 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 161 

mimetic character of his worship. A religion which looks 
upon the Sun and Moon as visible representatives of invi- 
sible deities is essentially imitative in all its rites. If the 
Sun, and the ever-revolving lights were fit emblems of a deity, 
the circling dance round the blazing altar was an obvious 
copy of the original symbols, and an equally apt represen- 
tation. The Sun-god when he roamed the earth, was pro- 
perly attended by the Sileni, the deities presiding over run- 
ning streams ; the goddess of the Moon by the Naiades, 
the corresponding female divinities ; and sometimes the two 
bands united to form one merry train. To these Sileni 
were added the Satyrs, a mixture of man and goat, different 
from, though sometimes confounded with, the Sileni ; for 
while the Sileni were real divinities, the Satyrs were only 
the deified representations of the original worshippers, who 
assumed as their dress the skin of the goat, which they had 
sacrificed as a welcome offering to their Wine-god. Such 
was the religion of Bacchus when it found its way into 
Greece, and doubtless it was soon incorporated with that of 
the Sun-god, and the mixed religion became prevalent both 
within and without the Peloponnesus. The Dorians, then, 
having a pair of deities corresponding in many respects 
with these objects of elementary worship, which they found 
established in most of the countries they subdued, naturally 
adapted their own religion to the similar one already sub- 
sisting. The dances of Bacchus in their original character 
resembled those of Apollo, for they were also military : and 
perhaps the occasional gymnastic nature of the former may 
be considered as a reason for the acceptance of this reli- 
gion by the warlike Dorians, in addition to the approxima- 
tion to mimicry in the Apollonian dances already ad- 
verted to. 

M 



162 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

52. The earliest species of choral poetry connected with 
the worship of Bacchus was the Dithyramb ; a derivation 
of SiOvpafjifioQ has been given, viz. from dig, and 6vpa ; the 
quantity of the first syllable has been objected : the answer 
to the objection, viz. that this deviation from the quantity 
of Big arose from the necessities of the trochaic verse, is not 
sufficient, unless it can be shewn, not only that the metre 
of the dithyramb itself was trochaic, (which is far from 
certain,) but also that it was necessary to introduce the 
name of the poem into the poem itself. Blomfield thinks 
there is an etymological connexion between the words 
'iafifiog, Qpianfiog, raid BiOvpa^og, (which is probably the 
case,) and that they are corruptions of Egyptian words 
(which is not so certain). It may be derived from A*, a con- 
traction of Ad, and Bvpaog, the thyrsus, or ivy-encircled 
wand ; Qupvog is another form of Opiacrog, a collection of 
leaves, from 6pla, fig-leaves; from the form Opiacrog, Qpiafifiog 
may be derived. The* original subject of the dithyramb 
was the birth of Bacchus ; if then it can be shewn that the 
thyrsus and the thrium were emblems of his birth, this de- 
rivation will be rendered probable. An old legend says that 
the palace of Thebes being burnt by lightning, the infant 
Bacchus was preserved by being enveloped in the ivy which 
grew around the columns (kiovciq), hence Bacchus was called 
UepiKtoviog by the Thebans. The Thyrsus then was proba- 
bly a rude representation of Bacchus Pericionius ; the 
cone was the head, the spear the ivy-enveloped body of 
the infant God. Another interpretation of the thyrsus was, 
that its cone represented the heart of Bacchus fixed upon 

* According to Plato, the name of the song expressed as much, 



THE GEECIAN DBAMA. 163 

a spear point ; this may explain the first syllable of the 
word SiOvpafifioQ, for, tyjv tov a/x]3Xwjuaroc Kapdiav r}vcyKE 
UaXXag rw Au. Eustath. p. 84. With regard to the thrium 
it may be remarked, that the thyrsi in Zoega have no ivy 
round the spear shaft, but the heads are actual thria, i. e. 
something wrapt up in leaves ; it is said that the leaves of 
the thrium were properly three ; the caduceus of Hermes or 
Bacchus was also called rpnrhrjXog. The Dithyramb is also 
called KiuGofyopog by Simonides of Ceos. Some derive 
OpiafifioQ from Qpiai, prophetic maids, others from Opial, the 
pebbles used in divination. 

53. The music of the Dithyramb was Phrygian, there- 
fore stirring and rapid, and the flute its original accompani- 
ment. 

54. Whilst the Dithyramb was adopted by the Dorians 
as a connecting link between the old religion and their own, 
a more primitive form of the worship still subsisted, viz. 
the Phallic processions, the rural celebration of the vintage ; 
while the Comedy of the Greeks arose from this, Tragedy 
sprang up from the more solemn festivities of the Dithy- 
ramb. 

55. The lyrical Drama coincided with the Dithyramb in 
confining its narrations to the history of Bacchus ; though 
after a time the lays of other Heroes were introduced in 
his stead ; thus Adrastus was the subject of lyrical trage- 
dies at Sicyon in very early times, and that town laid claim, 
and, according to Themistius, not without some justice, to 
the invention of dramatic poetry : Epigenes the Sicyonian 
is mentioned as the first of a series of sixteen dramatic 
poets, ending with Thespis. It was also, like the Dithyramb, 
danced by the Cyclic chorus ; it substituted, however, the 
lyre for the flute, and staid measures and regular action for 



164 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



the wild and impassioned movements of the older form of 
Bacchic poetry. The* lyrical Drama had no actors ; it was 
merely a lyrical chorus ; in what then did the dramatic 
element consist ? The Dithyrambic chorus itself was always 
mimetic, even from the first, and this mimic element did not 
arise from the introduction of Satyrs into it by Arion, 
which was only a change of the persons, not of the func- 
tions of the Dithyrambic Chorus ; what feature then so 
much distinguished the Dithyrambic from all other mimic 
choruses, that a modification of it could be called a lyrical 
Drama? Aristotle answers the question ; he tells us that 
Tragedy was derived airo tup fiap)(6vT(i)v rbv &0fy>ajuj3ov ; 
from the exarchi or coryphaei of the Dithyramb, who re- 
cited the ode in the first person, whilst the chorus danced 
around the blazing altar to the tune of his song ; the body 
of the dithyramb was not written in any regular measure, 
but, like all other odes, in lines of different length, and 
therefore bore no resemblance to the dialogue of the Attic 
Tragedy ; the exarchus, however, recited in trochaic metre, 
one of the ordinary measures of the dialogue, and it is in 
this sense that Aristotle refers to the exarchi of the Dithy- 
ramb the origination of Tragedy. 

57. There are several significations of the Exarchus; he 
was either the best dancer, who led off the dance, as in the 
passage of Homer quoted before ; or the best musician, who, 
before the song began, played a voluntary or prelude, which 
was called by the same name as the leading-dance of the 
exarchus in the choral dance ; or he was the chief mourner, 

• It was always, at least that of Stesichorus, written in antistro- 
phics : his name, which was originally Tisias, would seem to point 
to a standing chorus. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 165 

who struck himself the first blow, and the others followed, or 
if the lamentations were in the form of a Threnus, he re- 
cited the words of the song of mourning, which the others 
accompanied with appropriate lamentations ; or the Cory- 
phceus of the Dithyrambic chorus. 

58. The Inscriptions found at Orchomenus have been 
mentioned before : in the games mentioned in them, we find, 
first of all, trumpeters and a herald, who began the games 
contending with one another ; these are followed by the 
Epic poet, together with the Rhapsodist who recited his 
poem ; then we have the flute-player and harper with the 
persons who sang to these instruments respectively ; then 
Tragedians and Comedians ; then Tragedians and Come- 
dians with actors ; from this it is plain, that when Trage- 
dians and Comedians merely are mentioned, we are not to 
understand a play, but only a song ; as soon as an actor is 
mentioned, we are to understand by Tragedy and Comedy 
a dramatic entertainment: for a long time Tragedians and 
Comedians alone appeared in the Charitesia at Orchomenus, 
that is, a lyrical Tragedy and Comedy existed there long 
before the dramatical, and it is only in later times we find 
there the dramatical Tragedy and Comedy and Satyric 
drama, which originated from and belonged to the people 
of Attica alone. 

59. In addition to the choruses, which, together with the 
accompanying lyrical poetry, originated from the Dorians, 
another species of entertainment, peculiar to the Ionian 
race, (for it first sprung up in the Ionian colonies,) existed 
in Greece from the very earliest times. This was the reci- 
tation of poems by wandering minstrels, called pax^iocol, a 
name probably derived from the staff (pafiSo?) or branch 
(epvog) of laurel or myrtle, which was the symbol of their 



166 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

office, and toSrj a song ; from ipvog they were called apvq^ol, 
quasi spvwdoi ; (though other derivations of paiptoSbg and 
apvcoBbg are given ;) this staff was called aumnoQ, thesesacus, 
$ia to adeiv rov d^ainevov. Seated in some conspicuous 
situation, and holding this staff in the right hand, the rhap- 
sodes chanted in slow recitativo, and either with or without 
a musical* accompaniment, larger or smaller portions of the 
national epic poetry, which took its rise in the Ionian states ; 
their recitations, however, were not long confined to the 
Epos ; it was soon succeeded, but not displaced, by the 
gnomic and didactic poetry of Hesiod ; these poems were 
recited in the same way as the Epos, and Hesiod himself 
was a rhapsode. The gnomic poetry being by its nature a 
near approach to the common language of every-day life, 
the musical accompaniment of the Epos was laid aside as 
inappropriate for this ; at the same time, the old hexameter 
metre was dropped, and the iambic verse (which certainly 
existed in very early times, and was better adapted for the 
expression of moral maxims,) was formed from it by the de- 
duction of one time. Aristotle tells us that Homer used 
this metre in his Margites, but probably, as it is stated by 
Hephsestion, he mixed it up with dactylic verses, as is the 
case in the Epodes of Horace. Archilochus, who is gene- 
rally esteemed the inventor, is first heard of in the year 
708, B.C., and Simonides of Amorgus, who was, according 
to others, the first iambic poet, is placed by Suidas 490 
years after the Trojan sera. (693, B.C.) These iambic verses 

* The rhapsode, as such, could hardly have accompanied himself, 
as one of his hands would be occupied by his rod ; hence, Stesandrus, 
who sang the Homeric battles to the cithara at Delphi, could hardly be 
called a rhapsode. Terpander was the first who set the Homeric Poems 
to regular tunes. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 167 

were, like their predecessors, written for recitation ; for 
though the poems of Archilochus were most probably com- 
mitted to writing, yet the means of multiplying manuscripts 
in his time must have been exceedingly scanty, and if his 
opportunities of becoming known had been limited to the 
number of his readers, he could hardly have acquired his 
great reputation as a poet ; his poems, therefore, and those 
of Simonides were promulgated by recitation ; and as they 
could not be sufficiently diversified in time and rhythm to 
form a musical entertainment, it is probable that the reci- 
tation of their pieces, even if they were monologues, must 
have been a near approach to theatric declamation. This 
view of the case is not without some evidence ; Clearchus 
tells us, that " Simonides the Zacynthian recited (ippax^wcei) 
some of the poems of Archilochus, sitting on an arm-chair 
in the theatres ;" and Lysanias tells us, that " Mnasion, 
the rhapsode, in the public exhibitions acted some of the 
iambics of Simonides" ; (viroKpivE(jQm, this word is very often 
used of the rhapsode ; it is also applied to the recitation of 
the Ionic prose of Herodotus, which may be considered as 
a still more modern form of the Epos). Solon, too, who 
lived many years after these two poets, and was also a 
gnomic poet and a writer of iambics, on one occasion com- 
mitted to memory some of his own elegiacs, and recited 
them from the herald's bema. It is also very probable 
that the gnomes of Theognis were recited. The calling of 
the rhapsodes became a trade, and a very profitable one ; 
consequently their numbers increased, till on great occasions 
many of them were present, and recited different parts al- 
ternately, and with great emulation ; in the case of an epic 
poem, like the Iliad, this was at once a near approach to 
the theatrical dialogue, for if one recited the speech of 



168 THB GRECIAN DRAMA. 

Achilles In the first book, and another that of Agamemnon, 
they doubtless did their parts with all the action of stage- 
players. It is remarkable that the old iambic poems are 
often addressed in the second person singular ; these frag- 
ments then, were probably taken from speeches forming 
parts of moral dialogues, like the mimes of Sophron, from 
which Plato* borrowed the form of his dialogues ; for on 
the supposition they were recited, there is no other way of 
accounting for the fact. At all events it is quite certain, 
that these old iambic poems were the models which the 
Athenian tragedians proposed to themselves for their dia- 
logues ; (this is expressly stated by Plutarch, whose words 
convey the idea of a rhythmical recitation by the exarchus, 
followed by a musical performance by the chorus ;) they 
were written in the same metre, the same moral tone per- 
vaded both, and, in many instances, the dramatists have 
borrowed not only the ideas, but the very words of their 
predecessors. 

The rhapsode was not only the forerunner of the actor, 
but he was himself an actor (v-okpiti']q) ,and it is more than 
probable that the names of the actors, 7rpioTayti)viGrrig, &c. 
were derived from the names of the rhapsodes who recited 
in succession. If, therefore, the difference between the 
lyric Tragedy of the Dorians and the regular Tragedy of 
the Athenians consisted in this, that the one had actors 
(viroKpiTcu) and the other had none, we must look for the 
origin of the complete and perfect Attic drama in the 
union of the rhapsodes with the chorus : returning to the 
discussion on the word i^apxuv m section 56, we may re- 
member that the leader of the Dithyramb used the trochaic 

* Plato is sa'd to have had Sophron under his pillow when he died. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 169 

tetrameter, which is a lengthened form of the iambic tri- 
meter ; if this was the metre always used by the exarchus 
of the Dithyramb, and we collect from Aristotle that it 
was, for certainly the Dithyramb itself was not written in 
any regular metre — the exarchus was to all intents and 
purposes, either an acedus or a rhapsode, and therefore an 
actor, in the Greek sense of the word, even though he car- 
ried on no dialogue. We may now perceive the full truth 
of Aristotle's statement, that Tragedy arose from the 
exarchi of the Dithyramb. The Dithyramb was a mixture 
of recitation and chorus song ; and therefore readily sug- 
gested an union of the epic and gnomic elements, which had 
been for centuries approximating to a dialogue-form, with 
the old Dionysian goat-song, which had already assumed 
the form of a lyric tragedy. The two parts were ripe for a 
more intimate connexion ; each of them had within itself 
the seeds of an unborn drama, and they only needed blend- 
ing in order to be complete. This union was effected by 
Thespis in the time of Pisistratus. 

This account varies a little from that given in Chapter 2, 
where it was stated that the Dithyramb was the source of 
the chorus, and the Satyric chorus the source of the dia- 
logue ; here the Dithyramb in its two-fold character of re- 
citation and song, is stated to be the source of both ; they 
may, however, be reconciled by the circumstance, that the 
Dithyramb in the improved form which it received from 
Arion was performed by a chorus of satyrs. 

60. The worship of Bacchus was probably the religion of 
the oldest inhabitants of Attica, who, on the invasion of the 
country by the Ionians, were reduced, like the native La- 
conians, to the inferior situation of ireptoiKo^ and cultivated 
the soil for their conquerors. In the quadripartite, or, ac- 



170 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

cording to some, tripartite division of the people of Attica, 
they formed the tribe of the iEgicores or goat-herds, who 
worshipped Dionysus with the sacrifice of goats. Their 
religion, at first despised, was afterwards adopted by, and 
they themselves raised to an equality with, the other tribes. 
This is indicated by the freedom of slaves at the Dionysian 
festivals, by the reference of the origin of their religion to 
the town Eleutherse, and by the marriage of the king 
Archon's wife to Bacchus. It was natural, therefore, that 
the iEgicores should ascribe their freedom from political 
disabilities to their tutelary Grod, whom they therefore called 
'E\zv6epog ; and in later times, when all the inhabitants of 
Attica were on a footing of equality, the God Bacchus was 
still looked upon as the patron of democracy. When the 
Athenians recognized the supremacy of the Delphian ora- 
cle, the Dorian choral worship was introduced into Attica, 
and was applied to the old Dionysian religion of the coun- 
try with the sanction of the oracle ; thus the Dithyramb 
found its way into Attica, and most probably, the Dorian 
lyric Drama, perhaps with certain modifications, accompa- 
nied its parent. The recitations by rhapsodes were a pe- 
culiarly Ionian entertainment, and, therefore, were common 
in Attica from the very earliest times ; at Brauron, in par- 
ticular, the Iliad was chanted by rhapsodes ; now the Brau- 
ronia was a festival of Bacchus, and at this festival, we are 
told by Clearchus, the rhapsodes came forward in succes- 
sion and recited in honor of Bacchus ; thus by a combina- 
tion of these particulars a connexion is at once established 
between the worship of Bacchus and the rhapsodic reci- 
tations. 

61. At the time the Thespian tragedy arose, the people 
of Attica were divided into three parties ; the Utdiatoi, or 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 171 

the landed aristocracy of the interior, who were for an 
oligarchy ; the Uapa)<oi, or inhabitants of the coast, who 
were headed by Megacles, and were for a mixture of oli- 
garchy and democracy ; and the Aiaicpioi or 'YinpaKpLo^ the 
Highlanders, who were for a democracy, and were led by Pi- 
sistratus, son of Hippocrates ; he was of the family of the 
Codrids, bom at Philaidse, near Brauron, and therefore by 
birth a Diacrian ; also related to Solon, who had taken from 
the Eupatrids some of their exclusive privileges, and had 
established a timocracy in place of the previously existing 
aristocracy. Pisistratus, having possessed himself of sove- 
reign power, was expelled by the other factions, but was 
soon recalled by Megacles, who gave him his daughter in 
marriage. The manner of his return is of great importance 
in reference to the present subject: a beautiful woman, 
named Phya, was dressed as Minerva, and placed in a cha- 
riot ; heralds went before her, who told the people to re- 
ceive with good-will Pisistratus, whom Athena herself was 
bringing back from exile to her own Acropolis. The par- 
ties to this proceeding were ; first, Megacles, an Alcmssonid, 
and therefore connected with the worship of Bacchus; 
moreover, he was the father of the Alcmseon, whose son 
Megacles married Agarista, daughter of Cleisthenes of 
Sicyon, and had by her Cleisthenes, the Athenian dema- 
gogue, who is said to have imitated his maternal grand- 
father in some of the reforms which he introduced into the 
Athenian constitution, particularly, in his abolition of the 
Homeric rhapsodes, and his restitution of the Tragic 
choruses to Bacchus. Is it not probable that Megacles the 
elder was not indifferent to the policy of the father of his 
grandsons wife in this respect I The other party was Pi- 
sistratus, born near Brauron, where rhapsodic recitations 



172 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

were connected with the worship of Bacchus ; the strong 
hold of his party was the Tetrapolis, which contained the 
town of Oenoe, which was mainly instrumental in intro- 
ducing the worship of Bacchus into Attica ; his party in- 
cluded the iEgicores (who have been considered by some as 
identical with the Diacrians), and these were the original 
worshippers of Bacchus ; finally, there was a mask of Bac- 
chus at Athens, which was said to be a portrait of Pisis- 
tratus ; so that on the whole, he was deeply interested in 
the establishment of the rites of the iEgicores as a part 
of the state religion. As Phya, being a garland seller, 
must have been well known, she could not have passed 
herself off on the Athenians as a goddess ; it is therefore 
evident, that the ceremony attending the return of Pisis- 
tratus was, to all intents and purposes, a dramatic repre- 
sentation, of the same kind with that part of the Eumenides 
of iEschylus, in which Athena is introduced in a chariot, 
recommending to the Athenians the maintenance of the 
Areopagus. 

Thespis, the contemporary of Pisistratus, generally es- 
teemed the inventor of Greek Tragedy, was born at Icarius, 
a Diacrian deme, at the beginning of the sixth century 
B. 0. His birth-place derived its name from the father of 
Erigone, had always been a seat of the religion of Bac- 
chus, and the origin of the Athenian Tragedy and Comedy 
has been confidently referred to the drunken festivals of the 
place : indeed the name itself may probably point to the 
old mimetic exhibitions which were common there. (The 
improvements of Thespis have been mentioned in Chapter 
2.) It appears, then, that he was a contemporary of Pisis- 
tratus and Solon; he was a Diacrian, and consequently a 
partizan of the former ; but the latter was violently op- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



173 



posed to him : he was an Iearian, and therefore by his birth 
a worshipper of Bacchus ; he was an viroKpiTrig, and from the 
subjects of his recitations (as appears from the titles of his 
Dramas) a rhapsode ; here we again have the union of Diony- 
sian rites with rhapsodical recitations which we have discovered 
in the Brauronian festival. Whilst he carried on a dialogue 
(by means of its coryphoeus) with the chorus, which stood on 
the steps of the thymele, that he might be equally elevated, 
he was placed upon a table (tAede), which was thus the pre- 
decessor of the stage. The waggon of Thespis, of which 
Horace writes, probably arose from some confusion between 
this standing-place for the actor and the waggon of Susa- 
rion. Themistius tells us that he invented a prologue and 
a rhesis. The former must have been the prooemium which 
he spoke as exarchus of the Dithyramb ; the latter the dia- 
logue between himself and the chorus ; lastly, there is every 
reason to believe that he did not confine his representations 
to his native deme, but exhibited at Athens. From a com- 
parison of these particulars respecting Thespis with the cir- 
cumstances attending the return of Pisistratus, it appears, 
that a near approximation to the perfect form of the Greek 
Drama took place in the time of Pisistratus ; all those con- 
cerned in bringing it about were Diacrians, or connected 
with the worship of Bacchus ; the innovations were either 
the results or the concomitants of an assumption of poli- 
tical power by a caste of the inhabitants of Attica, whose 
tutelary God was Bacchus ; and were in substance nothing 
but an union of the old choral worship of Bacchus, with 
an offshoot of the rhapsodical recitations of the old epo- 
pceists. 

62. The formation of the Epos was the peculiar property 
of the Ionians, of Lyric poetry that of the Dorians ; so long 



174) THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

as tragedy or the tragic choruses existed in the Pelopon- 
nese, they were of a lyrical nature ; in this form, with the 
Doric dialect and a lyrical accompaniment, they were trans- 
planted into Attica ; and here, Thespis, an Athenian, and 
so standing in the middle between the proper Ionians and 
the Dorians, first joined to them the Ionic element of nar- 
ration, which, if not quite Ionic, had and maintained a re- 
lationship with the Ionic, even in the language. It may be 
remarked, that all the old iambic poets wrote strictly in the 
Ionic dialect. 

63. Pisistratus naturally encouraged the religion of his 
own people, the Diacrians ; nor was it strange that Solon, 
who thought he had given the lower orders power enough, 
should oppose the adoption of their worship as a part of 
the religion of the state ; for in those days the religion 
and the privileges of a caste rose and fell together. It may, 
however, seem strange, that Pisistratus, who, in most cases, 
adopted the -policy of the Sicyonian Cleisthenes, should 
encourage the rhapsodes, whom Cleisthenes sedulously put 
down on account of the predilection of the aristocracy for 
the Epos. We must then remember that Pisistratus was 
a Codrid, and therefore a JNeleid, even bearing the name of 
the son of Nestor, his ancestor ; he was also born in the 
deme Philaidse, which derived its name from Philseus, one 
of the sons of Ajax, and thus he reckoned Ajax also 
among his ancestors ; he must then have valued the poems 
which described the wisdom and valour of his ancestors ; 
by introducing also into the Homeric Poems some enco- 
miums on the Athenians, he added to his popularity ; it 
was his wish also, as far as possible, to conciliate his kins- 
man Solon, who greatly encouraged the rhapsodes, and was 
himself one of those writers of gnomic poetry, who were 



THE GKECIAN DRAMA. 175 

the successors of the Epopceists, and from whose writings 
the Attic Tragedians modelled their dialogue. May not 
these motives have induced him to unite the old Epic ele- 
ment with the rites of the Dionysian religion I May not 
such a combination have been suggested by his early recol- 
lections of the Brauronia I Did the genius of the Icarian 
plan the innovation and carry it into effect ? or, is the name 
Thespis a mere figment derived from the common epithet of 
the Homeric minstrel I But whatever cause may be assigned 
for the union of the rhapsody with the cyclic chorus, it 
certainly took place in the time of Pisistratus. It was not, 
however, exactly the Homeric rhapsody that was combined 
with the dithyramb ; (that was recited by itself at the Pana- 
thensea ;) the Homeric metre was not so well suited for 
dialogue as the Iambic ; recitations of gnomic verses in this 
metre were already common ; the Thespian rhapsode then 
spoke in Iambics, and though Aristotle says that Tragedy 
was originally extemporaneous, (au7oorx £ ^ a<mKr W ^ ne tra- 
gedies of Thespis were certainly not so, if, as Donatus 
says, they were committed to writing. Bentley's attempt to 
prove the spuriousness of the lines quoted from Thespis by 
Plutarch and Julius Pollux, is very like begging the ques- 
tion. He assumes, without proof, that the plays of Thespis 
were satyrical and ludicrous, and then because some lines 
quoted by Plutarch have a serious tone, he concludes they 
could not have been written by him ; similarly, because the 
play from which Pollux quotes was clearly, from its title, a 
tragedy, he at once denies its genuineness ; the two other 
quotations, especially that from Plutarch, have internal 
evidence in their favour; the latter is pervaded by the same 
spirit which we see in the gnomic Iambics of Simonides the 
elder, whom Thespis probably imitated ; the forgeries of 



m 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



Heraclides Ponticus are themselves no slight proof of the 
originally serious character of the Thespian Drama ; nor 
can any argument against the tragic character of Thespis 
be derived from the lines at the end of the Wasps of Aris- 
tophanes ; for opxuaQaL is used to signify acting in general ; 
thus Telestes, iEschylus 1 actor, is said to have expressed by 
dancing the character of Eteocles, in the Sept. contra Theb. 
With regard to the statement of Suidas that Phrynichus 
was the first who introduced women on the stage,- it is no 
reason for concluding that Thespis never wrote a Tragedy 
called Alcestis, for he might have handled the subject, 
so as not to introduce Alcestis herself. The fact is, that 
the choral plays, from which the Thespian drama was formed, 
were satyrical, for the Dithyramb, as improved by Arion, 
was performed by a chorus of Satyrs, and most probably 
Thespis was a Satyric Poet before he became a Tragedian 
in the more modern sense of the word. Of course, there 
could be no theatrical contests in the clays of Thespis ; but 
the dithyrambic contests were important enough to induce 
Pisistratus to build a temple, in which the victorious choragi 
might offer up their tripods, a practice which the victors 
with the tragic chorus subsequently adopted. 

64. It is generally stated that there were only three 
kinds of Greek plays, viz. : Tragedy, Comedy, and the Sa- 
tyrical Drama ; the Satyrical Drama was, however, pro- 
perly a subdivision of Tragedy, of which, as well as of 
Comedy, there were also other subdivisions, which shall be 
stated. 

65. The word Tragedy — -payioS'ia, is derived from rpayog 
and ujct) ; some reasons for this derivation have been given 
before ; another may be added ; Tpayog is a synonyme for 
oaTvpQQ. Hesych. the goat-eared attendant of Dionysus, is 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 177 

called by the name of the animal which he resembled, just 
as the shepherd was called by the name of the animal, 
which he tended, and whose skin formed his clothing ; thus 
the word Tityrus signifies, according to Servius, the leading 
ram of the flock, according to others, a goat, and some 
have supposed it to be another form of Satyrus. TpayqSia, 
then, in this sense, is not the song, of which a goat was the 
prize, but a song accompanied by a dance performed by per- 
sons in the guise of Satyrs, consequently a satyric dance ; 
and it has been already shown how Tragedy arose from such 
performances. At first then, Tragedy and the Satyric 
Drama were one and the same. When, however, the Tra- 
gedy of Thespis was established, and Comedy not yet in- 
troduced, the common people missed the merriment of the 
country satyrs, and complained that the plays had nothing to 
do with Bacchus ; the prevalence of this feeling at length 
induced Pratinas of Plilius, to restore the Tragic Chorus 
to the Satyrs, and to write Dramas, which were the same 
in form and materials with the Tragedy, but the choruses 
of which were composed of Satyrs, and the dances pyrrhic 
instead of gymnopsedic : thus the Satyric Drama was only 
a subdivision of Tragedy, written always by Tragedians, 
and seldom acted but along with Tragedies ; it has been 
plausibly conjectured that the Satyrical Drama was origi- 
nally acted before the Tragedy. 

66. The Greek Comedy was originally a country festival, 
the celebration of the vintage, when the rustics went from 
village to village, some in carts, who uttered the abusive 
speeches, with which the Tragedy of Thespis has been, per- 
haps unjustly, saddled, others on foot, who bore aloft the 
Phallic emblem, and invoked in songs Phales the comrade 
of Bacchus : hence, Aristotle derived Ktofiqdia from KiLfx^ a 

N 



178 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

village, and ^{j. It may, however, and perhaps more cor- 
rectly, be derived from KUfxog and cji&j. Kwjuloq signifies a 
revel continued after supper ; hence a band of those revel- 
lers, who, after supper, rambled through the streets to the 
sound of the flute or lyre, and with torches in their hands ; 
in a secondary sense, it signifies a song sung either by a 
convivial party, or at the Bacchic feasts, or by a procession 
in honor of a victor at the public games ; and by a still 
farther transition, it is used for a song in general ; and a pe- 
culiar flute tune, together with its corresponding dance, was 
known by this name. It is not in its secondary sense of 
" song 1 ' that KWfxydla is derived from kw/uloq, but in the se- 
cond sense, viz. that " of a band of revellers ;" thus the 
Bacchic reveller was called a Kwjjuodog, sciz. a comus-singer, 
according to the analogy of rpay^og, IXapwdog, &c. in 
which the first part of the compound refers to the per- 
former, the second to the song ; and as Tpaybfiia signifies a 
song of satyrs, so KwnqSia means a song of the comus. 
This view of the case is confirmed by the epithet ^uyicw/xoc, 
which Dicseopolis applies to Phales as the companion of 
Bacchus. Acharn. 263. 

67. The Phallic processions, from which the old Comedy 
arose, were in early times allowed in all cities ; probably, 
however, they soon became more common in the country, 
which was their natural abode ; and if Scheidner is right in 
his conjecture that there were two sorts of Phallic proces- 
sions, the one public, the other private, most probably the 
latter never found their way into the great towns. Pasqui- 
nades of the coarsest kind formed the principal part of 
these rural exhibitions, and this probably was the reason 
why Comedy was established at Athens in the time of 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 179 

Pericles ; for the demagogues* could think of no better way 
of safely attacking their political opponents than by in- 
troducing into the city the favourite country sports of the 
lower orders, and then, and not till then, did the perform- 
ance of Comedies, like that of Tragedies, become a public 
concern. The Comic Chorus was originally unprovided with 
masks, but rubbed their faces over with wine-lees as a sub- 
stitute, hence a Comedian is also called rpvycucoc : masks 
were not always used even in the time of Aristophanes, 
who acted the part of Cleon without one ; in later times, 
however, it was considered disreputable to go in any comus 
without a mask. 

68. The Tragedy and Comedy of the Greeks are ^ quite 
distinct, and had an entirely different origin. Plato con- 
siders Comedy to be the generic name for all dramatic ex- 
hibitions which tend to excite laughter, while Tragedy is an 
imitation of the noblest life, that is, of the actions of gods 
and heroes. Aristotle's definition (which shall be given in 
his Poetics) is more perfect : he makes the distinction, 
which Plato leaves to be inferred, between the objects of 
tragic and comic imitation, and adds to it the constituent 
characteristic of Tragedy, namely, that it effects by means 
of pity and terror the purgation of such passions. There 
is one particular which he has not stated, which however is 
due rather to the origin of Greek Tragedy than to its es- 
sence, viz. the necessity for a previous acquaintance on the 
part of the audience with the plot of the Tragedy ; this it 
is which chiefly distinguishes the Tragedies of Sophocles 
from those of Shakspeare. Kurd's definition of Tragedy 

* It is remarkable that Comedy thus introduced by the demagogues, 
was afterwards turned against themselves ; as, for instance, by Aris- 
tophanes against Cleon. 



180 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

is a mere copy of Aristotle's; Schiller thus defines it: 
" That art which proposes to itself, as its especial object, 
the pleasure resulting from compassion." 

69. If all the prominent characters in the true Tragedy 
were gods or heroes, it follows that the Uepaal of JEschylus, 
and the MiXtjtov aXwaig and <Poivi<r<jai of Phrynichus were 
not Tragedies in the truest sense, and must be referred to 
the class of Histories, which exist in all countries where the 
Drama is much cultivated, as a subordinate species of Tra- 
gedy : the other Tragedies may be called myths or fables, 
and bear the same relation to the true stories as the Epos 
bears to the history of Herodotus. 

70. In the course of time Tragi-comedy sprung up under 
the fostering care of Euripides, which was probably the 
forerunner of the IXaporpay^iaL of Rhinthon, Sopatrus, 
Sciras and Blsesus. One old specimen of this kind of play 
remains in the "AAicrjaric of Euripides, which was performed 
as the Satyrical Drama of a Tragic Trilogy, 438, B. C. and 
probably the Orestes was another of the same sort. It re- 
sembled the regular Tragedy in its outward form, but con- 
tained some comic characters, and always had a happy ter- 
mination. 

7J . A Play called EIXmteq ol lir\ Tatvapq, the chorus of 
which consisted of Helots dressed in goatskins, has been 
called by Herodian a satyrical Drama ; however from its 
being ascribed by Athenaeus to the Comedian Eupolis, and 
from the purely comic and criticising tone of one of the 
fragments, it was more probably a regular comedy with a 
political reference, not unlike the AaK^aifioveg of the same 
author. 

72. The Comedy of the Greeks is divided into three 
species, or rather three successive variations in form, viz. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 181 

The Old, the Middle, and the New. The Old was the re- 
sult of a successful attempt to give to the waggon-jests of 
the country comus a particular and a political bias ; its es- 
sence was personal satire, not merely the satire of descrip- 
tion, the abuse of words ; but the satire of representation ; 
upon this stock Aristophanes grafted his own Pantagruelism, 
which has in every age since the days of its reproducer 
Rabelais found a representative — Cervantes, Swift, Vol- 
taire, Sterne, Quevedo, Jean Paul, &c. &c. It is difficult 
to draw a line of demarcation between the writers of the 
Old and the Middle Comedy ; thus Aristophanes perhaps 
was both ; but as to the Comedies themselves, we may con- 
clude on the authority of Platonius, that the Middle 
Comedy was a form of the old, and differed from it in three 
particulars : it had no chorus, and therefore no parabasis — 
this arose from the inability of the impoverished state to 
furnish the comic poets with choragi :* living characters 
were not introduced on the stage — this was owing to the 
want of energy produced by the temporary subversion of 
the democracy : as a consequence of both these circum- 
stances, the objects of its ridicule were literary rather than 
political. The Old Comedy is the Comedy of Caricature ; 
the Middle, that of Criticism ; the former may be com- 
pared to the Lampoon, the latter to the Review. The 
New Comedy commenced in the time of Alexander ; we 
may see in Plautus and Terence, who translated the Greek 
writers of this class, satisfactory specimens of the nature of 

* The law, tov ^ moftaurr) xupuliTv nvd, passed about 404, B.C. dur- 
ing the government of the Thirty, simply forbade the introduction of 
any individual on the stage by name as one of the dramatis personce ; 
it might be evaded by identifying the person by the mask, dress, &c. &c. 



182 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

this branch, of Comedy ; it corresponded, as nearly as pos- 
sible, to our own Comic Drama, especially to that of Far- 
quhar and Congreve, which Charles Lamb calls the Comedy 
of Manners, and Hurd the Comedy of Character. It pro- 
bably arose from an union of the style and tone of the 
Euripidean Dialogue, with the subjects and characters of 
the later form of the Middle Comedy. 

The subjoined general view of the rise and progress of 
the proper Greek Drama may assist the student. 



184 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



73. TABLE OF DRAMATIC CLASSIFICATION. 



DORIAN ELEMENT. 

Choruses in honor of Apollo. 

Lyrical Poetry in connexion with these Choruses 

Transfer of these to Bacchus. 



The Dithyramb, with a Flute Accompaniment 

A Satyrical Chorus introduced by Arion. 

The Dithyramb becomes Lyrical. 



The Exarchi recite Iambic 



IONIAN ELEMENT. 



Rhapsodical Recitation of Homer's Poems. 



Unaccompanied Recitation of Iambics. 




The Conns Song at the Vintage. 

Recita?W 1 *? oft 55 -* 7 ?"\T? "?*J a P sod j ca1 U *» on °< the Iambic Lampoon with the Comus, and 
Kecitahons, i. e. of the m M /3o<; with the ^ P «a M /3o t -. establishment of a regular Comic Chorus. 

Dialogue between the Rhapsode and the Chorus. The Old Comedy, or Comedy of Caricature. 



Another Artor added bv JEschvlus: 
The iEsschylean Trilogy. " 



A third by Sophocles : 
The perfect Athenian Tragedy. 



The Middle Comedy, or Comedy of Criticism. 
The New Comedy, or Comedy of Manners 



First Variety. Second Variety. Third Variety. Fourth Variety. 
The Tragedy The Satyrical The History. The Trafri- 

proper. Drami. Comedy. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 185 

74 The improvements which are due to iEschylus are 
so many proofs of his anti-democratical spirit. This aris- 
tocratical spirit, and departure from his original reverence 
for the religion of Bacchus, which was so beloved by the 
common people, was occasioned by his military connexion 
with the Dorians, and the love which he then acquired for 
the Dorian character and institutions. In all his innova- 
tions there appears a wish to diminish the choral or Bac- 
chic element of the Tragedy, and to aggrandize the other 
part, by connecting it with the old Homeric Epos, the 
darling of the Aristocracy ; and it was owing to this that he 
borrowed so little from the Attic traditions, or from the 
Heracleia or Theseis, of which Sophocles and Euripides so 
freely availed themselves ; (though in style and representa- 
tion, Sophocles was still more Homeric than iEschylus ;) 
his breaking up the dithyrambic chorus of fifty men, which 
the state gave him as the basis of his Tragedy, into sub- 
ordinate choruses, one or more of which he employed in each 
play of his trilogy, is another proof of his willingness to 
abandon all reference to the worship of Bacchus. His im- 
provement of the costume was a part of the same plan, 
by departing from the dresses worn in the Bacchic proces- 
sions ; and perhaps the invention of the Trilogy was a part 
of his attempt to make the Xoyoc, or theatrical declamation 
(spoken from the Xoyelov) the principal part in his Tragedy. 
This may be shewn thus : the invention of a wpoXoyog and a 
pr\mg, attributed to Thespis, points to two entrances only 
of the Thespian actor ; the rpiXoyla, in its old sense, may 
have been originally a irp6\oyog^ and two X0701 or prjaeig 
instead of one ; consequently, an increase of business for 
the vTTOKpm'ig. Now, when ^Eschylus had added a second 
actor, each of these Xoyoi became a <>t.aXoyog or Spapa, and 



186 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

if he had the intentions attributed to him, he would na- 
turally expand each of these SiaXoyoi into a complete play, 
and break up the chorus into three parts, assigning one to 
each dialogue, and subordinating the whole chorus to the 
action of the piece. This view is favored by the analogy, 
that as the npoXoyog of Thespis was subordinate to the 
priaiQ, so the first play in a trilogy of iEschylus was sub- 
ordinate to, and had a prophetic reference to the second, 
the third was little more than a finale, whilst all the stirring 
interest was concentrated in the second : this principle is 
the key to his trilogies. 

75. The leading distinction between the iEschylean Tra- 
gedy, and the Homeric Epos, is, that the latter contains an 
uninterrupted series of events, whereas the former exhibits 
the events in detached groups. 

76. As the trilogies were acted early in the year, it is 
probable that the night began to close in before the last 
piece and the satyrical drama were over ; this may account 
for Prometheus, the fire-kindler, (which was probably a 
torch-race,) being the satyrical drama of the Perseis ; for 
the torch-procession at the end of the Eumenides ; and for 
the conflagration at the end of the Troades. 

77. .ZEschylus sometimes nearly quotes the words of Solon, 
whose maxims were engraven on his memory. His Poems 
abound with military, political, and nautical terms, betoken- 
ing his mode of life ; he often alludes to Zeus Soter, the 
God of Mariners ; and though he had not much relish for 
the Dionysian rites, he was strongly attached to the Dorian 
idolatry, on which Pythagoras founded his more spiritual 
and philosophical system of religion. 

78. When Cimon and his colleagues awarded the prize 
from iEschylus to Sophocles, the decision did not imply any 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 187 

disregard of the iEschylean Tragedy on the part of the 
Athenians ; the contest was not between two individual 
works of art, but between two species or ages of art. The 
Tript olenitis was probably one of Sophocles 1 plays on that 
occasion; for Pliny says, (H.N. 18.7.) Sophoclis Tripto- 
lemus ante mortem Alexanclri annis fere, 145. But Alex- 
ander died 323, B.C. and 323 + 145=468, the year in which 
the contest took place ; the subject of this play, an old 
national legend, would be in favour of Sophocles, whilst the 
anti-popular politics of .ZEschylus would weigh against 
him. 

79. According to one account, an image of a Siren was 
placed over the tomb of Sophocles, according to another, a 
bronze swallow. Ister informs us, that the Athenians de- 
creed him an annual sacrifice. He wrote, besides Trage- 
dies, an Elegy, Paeans, and a Prose work on the Chorus, 
against Thespis and Choerilus : only seven of his tragedies 
are extant, but an ingenious attempt has lately been made 
by Gruppe to shew that the Rhesus, which is generally at- 
tributed to Euripides, was the first of the plays of So- 
phocles. 

80. Aristophanes of Byzantium tells us that one hundred 
and thirty plays were ascribed to Sophocles, of which one 
hundred and thirteen were genuine, seventeen being spu- 
rious ; as we have a list of one hundred and fourteen names 
of dramas attributed to Sophocles, of which ninety-eight 
are quoted more than once as his, it is very probable that 
the statement of Aristophanes is correct. From the names 
it would appear that about twenty-seven were satyrical 
dramas, this would give twenty-seven tetralogies, or one 
hundred and eight plays, and there would remain five single 
plays to satisfy the statement of Suidas, that he contended 



188 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

with drama against drama. It is very likely that the cus- 
tom of contending with single plays, which Sophocles thus 
occasionally adopted, arose from his having given to each 
of the plays in his trilogies an individual and independent 
completeness, which the connected plays of an JEschylean 
trilogy did not possess. The Tragedy of Sophocles was not 
generically different from that of JEschylus ; it bore the 
same relation to it that a single statue bears to a connected 
group : for when he added a third actor to the two of JEs- 
chylus, he gave so great a preponderance to the dialogue, 
that the chorus, or the base on which the three plays stood, 
was unable any longer to support them ; in giving each of 
them a separate pedestal, he rendered them independent, 
and destroyed the necessary connexion which before sub- 
sisted between them ; so that it became from thenceforth a 
matter of choice with the poet, whether he represented 
with trilogies or with separate plays. 

81 . Though the private character of Sophocles is stained 
with many blemishes ; his Tragedies are full of the strong- 
est recommendations of religion and morality ; to charac- 
terize the man and his works in one word, calmness is the 
prominent feature in his life and writings : in his politics an 
easy indifference to men and measures ; (thus in his earlier 
days he supported Pericles and the popular party, in his 
later, Peisander and the aristocratical ;) in his private life, 
contentment and good nature ; in his Tragedies, a total 
absence of wild enthusiasm ; are the manifestations of this 
calmness and rest of mind. 

82. The infidelity of his two wives may have occasioned 
the misogynism, for which Euripides was notorious ; this 
also may have partly occasioned his exile to Macedonia ; 
besides this, he was very intimate with Socrates and Alci- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 189 

biades, the former of whom assisted him in his Tragedies, 
and when Alcibiades won the chariot-race at Olympia, 
Euripides wrote a song in honour of his victory. Now 
even at the time of Euripides 1 exile, Socrates was becom- 
ing unpopular, and Alcibiades was a condemned exile, per- 
haps, then, Euripides wisely withdrew from a country where 
his philosophical as well as his political sentiments exposed 
him to continual danger. Sophocles received many invita- 
tions from foreign courts, but loved Athens too well to ac- 
cept them. 

83. The talent of Euripides for rhetorical display has, 
in all ages, rendered him a greater favorite than either 
iEschylus or Sophocles ; it is this which made the invention 
of tragi-comedy by him so natural and so easy ; which re- 
commended him to Menander as the model for the dialo- 
gue of his new Comedy, and to Quintilian as an author to 
be studied by young orators and advocates ; and to the 
learned of the middle ages, who mistook scholastic subleties 
for eloquence, and minute distinctions for science. How 
he became so unlike his two great predecessors is easily ex- 
plained. The connexion between the actors of IEschylus 
and Sophocles, and the Homeric rhapsodes has been stated ; 
the rhapsodes were succeeded by a class of men called 
sophists ; since then Euripides was nursed in the lap of so- 
phistry, was the pupil and friend of the most eminent of 
the sophists, and to all intents a sophist himself, it was na- 
tural that he should turn the rhapsodical element of the 
Greek Drama into a sophistical one. But was not Euripides 
assisted in Dramas by Socrates, and does not Plato repre- 
sent Socrates as the great enemy of the Sophists ? This 
is true, and yet Socrates was himself a sophist, though the 
best of them, and no disagreements are so implacable as 



190 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

those between persons who follow the same trade with dif- 
ferent objects in view. 

84. In his political opinions Euripides was attached to 
Alcibiades and the war-party, and was opposed to Aris- 
tophanes, and to the best interests of Athens. He was 
united with Alcibiades and the sophist G-orgias, in urging 
the disastrous expedition to Sicily; for he wrote the trilogy 
to which the Troades belonged in the beginning of the year 
415, B.C. in which that expedition started, clearly with a 
view to encourage the Athenians to the war, by reminding 
them of the success of a similar expedition ; and most pro- 
bably Aristophanes wrote the " Birds'' in the following year, 
to ridicule the whole plan and its authors. 

85. Were it not for the exceeding beauty of many of 
his choruses, and for the proof which he occasionally exhi- 
bits of really tragic power, Euripides might be considered 
only a second-rate poet ; fifteen of his Tragedies, or sixteen, 
if the Rhesus be his, two Tragi-coinedies, viz. the Orestes 
and the Alcestis, and a Satyrical drama, the Cyclops, have 
come down to us. 

86. From the first exhibition of Epicharmus to the last 
of Posidippus, the first and last of the Greek Comedians, 
is a period of two hundred and fifty years : and between 
those two poets one hundred and four authors are enu- 
merated, who are all said to have written Comedy. The 
claims of some of these, however, to the rank of Come- 
dians are very doubtful, and two of them, Sophron and his 
son Xenarchus, were mimographers, and as such, w T ere not 
only not Comedians, but hardly Dramatists at all. 

87. Epicharmus, the son of Helothales, whom Theocri- 
tus calls the inventor of Comedy, and who, according to 
Plato, bore the same relation to Comedy that Homer did 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 191 

to Tragedy, was a native of Cos, and went to Sicily with 
Cadmus, the son of Scythes. Besides being a Comic Poet, 
and a Pythagorean, he was also a physician, which has been 
considered an additional proof of his Coan origin; his 
Comedies were partly parodies of mythological subjects, 
and as such, not very different from the dialogue of the 
satyrical Drama ; partly political, and so may have furnished 
a model for the dialogue of the Athenian Comedy : he must 
have made some advance towards the Comedy of Character, 
if the Mensechmi of Plautus was founded on one of his 
plays. It seems probable that he had choruses in his Co- 
medies from the title of one of them, the K^fiaaTcu. Aris- 
totle charges him with using false antitheses. 

88. Cratinus, the son of Callimedes, was born at Athens, 
B.C. 519 ; he was a very bold satirist, and so popular, that 
his choruses were sung at every . banquet by the comus of 
revellers ; in imitation of Sophocles he increased the num- 
ber of comic actors to three. 

89. Phrynichus, the Comic Poet, was attacked by Her- 
mippus, another Comedian, for being a plagiarist, and was 
ridiculed by Aristophanes in his Barpaxoi for his custom 
of introducing grumbling slaves on the stage. 

90. Different countries are assigned to Aristophanes as 
his birth-place, viz., Ehodes, Egypt, Naucratis, iEgina ; 
this confusion may have arisen from the action brought 
against him by Cleon, with a view to deprive him of his 
civic rights. The very charge proves the contrary, for 
Cleon attempts to prove that he was not the son of Philip- 
pus, his reputed father, but the illegitimate offspring of his 
mother, and some person who was not an Athenian citizen. 
His nominal parents are thus tacitly admitted to have been 
citizens, and as Cleon failed to prove his charge, he must 



192 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

have been one also ; his efforts for the good of Athens, his 
ridicule of those who did not belong to the old Athenian 
(pparpiai, his purely Attic language, all prove him to be an 
Athenian ; with regard to the statement that he was a 
Rhodian, he was often confounded with Antiphanes, who 
was one ; the notion that he was an Egyptian may have 
arisen from his many allusions to that people and their 
customs ; when Heliodorus states that he was from Nau- 
cratis, he may be alluding to some commercial residence of 
his ancestors in that city ; his iEginetan origin has been 
presumed from a passage in the " Acharnians," which, how- 
ever, refers to Callistratus, who was the nominal author of 
the play, and not to Aristophanes. A method of ascer- 
taining the date of his birth before given placed it B.C. 456 ; 
his first Comedy, the ■* Banqueters," in which he exposed 
the injurious effects of sophistry on education, was exhi- 
bited in 427, B.C., and if, as the Scholiast on the Ranse says, 
he was then but a youth, or about seventeen, he must have 
been born about 444, B.C. The " Babylonians" and 
" Acharnians," were exhibited 426, B.C., both under the 
name of Callistratus ; the former was an attack on the de- 
magogues, for which Cleon brought an action against Cal- 
listratus ; the latter is the earliest of his Comedies which 
has come down to us entire. When the " Clouds," the most 
beautiful of his plays, was first exhibited, 423, B.C. the 
plays of Cratinus and Ameipsias, his competitors, gained 
the first and second prizes. In the " Wasps," which was 
brought out in the name of Philonides, at the Lensea, 422, 
B.C. he ridicules the love of litigation, so prevalent at 
Athens. The subject of the " Peace," as well as of the 
" Acharnians," is the evils of the Peloponnesian war. The 
" Birds" came out at the great Dionysia, under the name 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 193 

Callistratus ; it Is one of the most wonderful compositions 
in any language, and was designed, as also the " Amphia- 
raus, r> exhibited in the same year, to ridicule the Euripidean 
trilogy, which came out the year before. The " Lysistrata," 
which appeared in the name of Callistratus, is a recom- 
mendation of peace. The " Thesmophoriazusse" is an attack 
on Euripides. The object of the " Ecclesiazusse," and of 
the "Plutus," is to divert the Athenians from the prevalent 
adoption of Dorian manners. The two last Comedies which 
he wrote were called the iEolosicon and Oocalus ; they were 
brought out by Araros, one of his sons, and both belonged 
to the second variety of Comedy, viz. that of Criticism. 
The former was a parody and criticism of the JEolus of 
Euripides ; the name is a compound of the name of Euri- 
pides' tragic hero, and Sicon, a celebrated cook ; and for this 
reason, the whole Comedy was full of cooking terms : the 
latter was a criticism of a tragedy whose hero was Cocalus, 
the fabulous king of Sicily, who slew Minos; it was so near 
an approach to the third variety of Comedy, that Philemon 
was able to bring it again on the stage with very few altera- 
tions. The names of forty-four Comedies ascribed to Aris- 
tophanes are recorded. 

91. Menander imitated Euripides ; his Comedies differed 
from the tragi-comedies of that poet only in the absence of 
mythical subjects and a chorus. He was a good rhetori- 
cian, and Quintilian, who recommends him as a model for 
orators, attributes to him some orations published under the 
name of Charisius : the mode of his death is alluded to by 
Ovid, 

" Comicus ut mediis periit dura nabat in undis," 

a statue was erected to his memory in the Theatre at 
Athens. 



194 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

92. As Plautus borrowed his Oasina from the K\r)/>oujU£voi 
of Diphilus, so Terence tells us that he introduced into the 
Adelphi a literal translation of part of his 'SvvaTroOvricrKov- 
tsq. Diphilus wrote prologues to his Dramas, which were 
like the prologues of the Latin Comedians, though they 
were originally borrowed (like all the new Comedy) from 
the Tragedies of Euripides. 

93. The Greek Comedy properly ended with Posidippus, 
but there are some writers of a later elate called Come- 
dians: Ehinthon of Tarentum is called a Comedian by 
Suidas, but his plays seem to have been rather phly-acogra- 
jp7ries, or tragi-comedies ; Sopater of Paphos was a writer 
of the same kind; and Sotades of Crete, who lived about 
280, B.C. and wrote in the Ionic dialect. Macho wrote 
Comedies at Alexandria about 230, B.C., he was the in- 
structor' of Aristophanes of Byzantium. Apollodorus of 
Carystus was a contemporary of Macho ; he is often con- 
founded with Apollodorus of Gela, from whom Terence 
borrowed his Hecyra and Phormio. 

94. It has been stated in Chapter 3, that there were but 
three Dionysian festivals; some authors separate the Ar\vaXa 
from the AvQeaTripia, and thus make four, held in the sixth, 
seventh, eighth, and ninth months of the Attic year, viz. — 
The ra kclt aypovg, the festival of the vintage, held in Po- 
seideon, the sixth month. The to. Arivaia, held in Gameleon, 
the seventh month, which corresponded to the Ionian month 
Lenseon, and to part of January and February; it was also 
a vintage festival, but differed from the former, which was 
held in the country, in being confined to the Lenseon, a 
place in Athens, where the first wine-press (Arjvoe) was 
erected. The ?d AvOeaTrjpia, or ra Iv Aifivaig, held on the 
eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth days of Anthesterion ; this 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 195 

was not a vintage festival ; the new wine was drawn from 
the cask on the first day of the feast, and tasted on the 
second ; on the third day much banqueting went on ; on 
the Choes, or second day, each citizen had a separate cup, a 
custom which arose, according to the tradition, from the 
presence of Orestes at the feast, before he had been duly 
purified ; it has been thought, however, to refer to a differ- 
ence of castes among the worshippers at the time of the 
adoption of the Dionysian rites in the city ; the Anthes- 
teria are called by Thucydides, the more ancient festival of 
Bacchus. The to. lv aaru held between the eighth and 
eighteenth of Elaphebolion. At the first, second, and 
fourth of these festivals, theatrical exhibitions took place : 
the exhibitions at the country Dionysia were generally of 
old pieces ; there is no instance of a play being acted on 
those occasions for the first time ; at the Lenaea and great 
Dionysia, both Tragedies and Comedies were performed ; 
at the latter, the Tragedies, at least, were always new 
pieces ; it is probable that repetitions were allowed at the 
Lensea, as well as at the country Dionysia. The month 
Elaphebolion may have been selected for the representa- 
tion of new Tragedies, because Athens was then full of 
the dependent allies, who came at that time to pay the tri- 
butes, whereas the Athenians alone were present at the 
Lensea; hence iEschines reproaches Demosthenes with not 
being satisfied with the applause of his fellow-citizens, since 
he must have the crown decreed him proclaimed at the great 
Dionysia, when all Greece was present. It does not clearly 
appear that there were any theatrical exhibitions at the 
Anthesteria ; it is probable that the Tragedians read to a 
select audience at the Anthesteria, the Tragedies which 
they had composed for the festival in the following month, 



196 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

or, perhaps, the contests took place then, and the inter- 
vening month was employed in perfecting the actors and 
chorus in their parts. 

95. Choruses were originally composed of the whole po- 
pulation ; in process of time, the duties of this branch of 
worship devolved upon a few, and ultimately upon one, 
called the Choragus, who bore the whole expense ; he was 
considered as the religious representative of the whole peo- 
ple, and was said to do the state's work for it (At iTovpyttv*), 
hence his person and the ornaments which he procured for 
the occasion were sacred. The Choragia, the Gymnasiarchy, 
the Feasting of the Tribes, and the Architheoria, belonged 
to the class of regularly recurring state burthens (hyicvKXioi 
Aarovpytat), to which all persons whose property exceeded 
three talents were liable. It was the business of the cho- 
ragus to provide the chorus for all plays, whether tragic or 
comic, and also for the lyric choruses of men and boys, 
Pyrrichists, Cyclian dancers, and others ; being selected by 
the managers of his tribe (tTn^fArjral (pvXrig) for the cho- 
ragy which had come round to it, his first duty, after col- 
lecting his chorus, was to provide and pay a teacher (x<>po- 
&Sa(TKaAoe), who instructed them in the songs, dances, &c. 
The choragi drew lots for the first choice of teachers ; they 
were allowed to press children for the chorus, if their pa- 
rents refused to give them ; they lodged and maintained the 
chorus till the time of performance, and supplied the singers 
with such aliments as strengthened their voice. The actors 
were the representatives not of the people but of the poet, 
hence the choragus had nothing to do with them ; if he had 
paid for them, the dramatic choruses would have been more 

* Hence the word " Liturgy," 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 197 

expensive than the chorus of men, &c. &c. whereas they 
were less so ; besides, the actors were not allotted to the 
choragi, but to the poets, and were, therefore, paid either 
by these or by the state. The choragus attended to the 
chorus, and the poet to the actors ; on the day of trial they 
united their efforts, and endeavoured to gain the prize by a 
combination of the best-taught actors and best dressed and 
trained chorus; hence the beauty of the poem in itself did 
not always insure success. The successful choragus received 
a tripod ; this he was at the expense of consecrating, and 
sometimes built the monument on which it was placed ; 
thus the monument of Lysicrates, still at Athens, was 
surmounted by a tripod ; from the inscriptions on these 
monuments, the didascalias were probably compiled ; the 
choragus in Comedy consecrated the equipments of his 
chorus ; the successful poet was crowned with ivy, as also 
his choragus and performers, and, as we see from Plato's 
" Banquet," he commemorated his victory with a feast. 

96. If we would not confound the manner of representa- 
tion of the Ancient with that of the Modern Drama, we 
must recollect the military origin of the chorus, its employ- 
ment in the worship of Bacchus, the successive adoption of 
the lyre and the flute as accompaniments, the nature of the 
cyclic chorus, and the invention of Stesichorus. We must 
also remember that the actor was originally a rhapsode who 
succeeded the exarchus of the dithyramb, that he was 
the representative of the poet who was the original 
exarchus, and as such, a narrator, that he acted in 
a huge theatre at a great distance from the specta- 
tors, and that he often had to sustain more than one part 
in the same piece. The first remark, with regard to the 
chorus, will explain the order and manner in which the 



198 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

chorus made their entry : the chorus was supposed to be a 
lochus of soldiers in battle-array; in the dithyrambic or 
cyclic chorus of fifty, this military arrangement was not 
practicable ; but when the original choral elements had be- 
come more deeply inrooted in the worship of Bacchus, and 
the three principal Apollonian dances were transferred to 
the worship of that God, the dramatic choruses became, 
like them, quadrangular, and were arranged in military 
rank and file. The number of the tragic chorus for the 
whole trilogy appears to have been fifty ; the comic chorus 
consisted of twenty-four ; the chorus of the tetralogy was 
broken into four sub-choruses, two of fifteen, one of twelve, 
and a satyric chorus of eight; (this arrangement differs 
somewhat from that given before from M tiller ;) when the 
chorus of fifteen entered in ranks three abreast, it was said 
to be divided Kara %vya ; when it was distributed into three 
files of five, it was said to be /caret aroiyovQ ; the same mi- 
litary origin explains why the Anapsestic metre was gene- 
rally, if not always, adopted for the opening choral song ; 
for this metre was also used in the Greek marching songs. 
The muster of the chorus round the Thymele shows that 
the chorus was Bacchic as well as military ; the mixture of 
lyric and flute music points to the same union of two wor- 
ships ; and in the atrophic and anti- atrophic form of most 
of the choral odes, we discern the traces of the lyric tra- 
gedies of Stesi chorus. Again, with regard to the actor ; 
when we remember that he was but the successor of the 
exarchus, who in the improvements of Thespis spoke a 
iTfiokoyoQ before the chorus came on the stage, and held a 
prioLQ, or dialogue, with them after they had sung their 
choral song, we shall see why there was always a soliloquy 
or a dialogue, in the first pieces of the more perfect tra- 



THE GKECIAN DEAMA. 199 

gedies, before the chorus came on. His connexion with the 
rhapsode is also a reason for the narrative character of the 
speeches and dialogues, and for the general absence of the 
abrupt and vehement conversations which are so common 
in modern plays. Another peculiarity which distinguished 
the Grecian from the modern manner of acting, was the 
probable neglect of every thing like by-play, and making 
points, which are so effective on the stage. The distance at 
which the spectators were placed would prevent them from 
seeing those little movements, and hearing those low tones 
which have made the fortune of many a modern actor. 
The mask too precluded all attempts at varied expression, 
and probably nothing more was expected from the performer 
than was looked for from his predecessor the rhapsode— 
namely, good recitation. 

97. The three principal kinds of poetry in general are 
the epic, lyric, and dramatic. All the other subordinate 
species are either deducible from one of these, or may be 
explained as a mixture of them. It is remarkable that in 
epic and lyric poetry, no such divergence into two con- 
trasted species has taken place, as that in the Drama, of 
Tragedy and Comedy. It is true, the ludicrous epopee (as 
it is called) has been erected by some into a proper spe- 
cies, but it is in fact an accidental variety, a mere parody of 
the epos, and consists in applying to insignificant circum- 
stances that solemn staidness of development, which pre- 
vails in the proper epopee, and which seems to be appro- 
priate only to grand subjects. In lyric poetry there are 
gradations, as the song, the ode, the elegy, but no proper 
contrast. 

The spirit of the epic poem, as it appears in its father 
Homer, is clear, transparent collectedness of mind. The 



200 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



Epos is a quiet representation of a march of events. The 
Poet narrates either serious or cheerful incidents, but he 
narrates them with equanimity of spirit, and withholds 
them, as already past, at a certain remoteness from the 
view. 

The lyric poem is the musical expression of mental emo- 
tions by means of speech. The essence of the musical tone 
or affection of mind is when we seek to retain an excite- 
ment, be it in itself joyful or sorrowful, with complacency, 
nay, to perpetuate it in the soul. 

The dramatic poet, in common with the epic, deals with 
exterior incidents, but then he exhibits them as actual and 
present. In so doing, he lays claim to our sympathy, in 
common with the lyric poet, but he is not so easily satisfied 
as the latter, and insists upon affecting us with joy or sorrow 
in a far more immediate degree and manner. Standing in 
close proximity to real life, and seeking to transform his 
figments into its realities, the equanimity of the epic poet 
would in him be indifference ; he must decidedly avouch him- 
self a partisan of one or other of the leading views of hu- 
man life, and must constrain his hearers also to come over 
to his pirty. 

98. Tragic and Comic are related to each other as earnest 
and sport; earnest belongs more to our moral, sport to our 
animal nature ; earnest, in its most extended sense, is the 
direction of the mental powers to an object or purpose ; as 
earnest, carried to the highest degree, is the essence of 
Tragedy, so sport is of Comedy. The eider Comedy of the 
Greeks wa3 altogether sportive, and thereby formed the 
most complete contrast to their Tragedy. 

99. The best means of winning one's way into the spirit of 
the Greeks, without acquaintance with their language, is 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 201 

the study of the antiques, which, if not in the originals, at 
least in the casts, now so common, are in some degree ac- 
cessible to all. All intelligent artists, nay, all men of feel- 
ing, bow with entranced veneration to the master-works of 
ancient sculpture. Two of the best keys to open to us into 
this sanctuary of the beautiful, are "Winkelmann's History 
of Art,'" and " the Travels of Anacharsis the younger. 11 

100. The three famous Unities, which have given rise to 
a whole Iliad of battles among the Critics, are Unity of 
Action, of Time, and of Place. The French Critics par. 
ticularly lay great stress upon these Unities. The validity 
of the first is admitted by all ; its meaning is not so easily 
ascertained. Aristotle has been enlisted, without ceremony, 
to lend his name to these three Unities, and yet it is only 
of the Unity of Action that he speaks at any length, while 
he merely throws out a vague hint about the Unity of Time, 
and says not a word about the Unity of Place. It has been 
remarked before that the Greek Dramatists did not scru- 
pulously observe those of Time and Place. Aristotle han- 
dles Unity of Action in a very imperfect way: he says that 
Tragedy is the imitation of a perfect and entire action 
having a certain magnitude or extension ; that the greater 
the extent, provided it be perspicuous, the more beautiful it 
is ; that a whole or entire action is that which has a begin- 
ning, a middle, and an end, and that thus the exhibited 
events must be connected as cause and effect. It may be 
remarked, that these expressions are favourable to Shaks- 
peare and other romantic dramatists who have taken into a 
single picture a more comprehensive sphere of life, charac- 
ters, and events, than are to be found in the simple Greek 
Tragedy, and have also observed unity and perspicuity. 
Aristotle understands by action merely something that is 



202 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

going on ; now, action, properly considered, is a procedure 
dependent on the will of man ; its Unity consists in the 
tendency towards a single end ; to its completeness belongs 
all that intervenes between the first resolve and the execu- 
tion of the deed ; but there may be a plurality of subordi- 
nate actions in the Drama ; Oorneille felt this difficulty, 
when he said, " I assume that unity of Action in Comedy 
consists in unity of intrigue, and in Tragedy, in unity of 
danger ; but I do not mean to assert that there may not be 
several dangers, and several intrigues," &c. &c. 

The distinction here assumed between tragic and comic 
unity is quite unessential, for the manner of putting the play 
together is not influenced by the circumstance that the 
incidents in tragedy are serious, and in comedy not so ; 
Unity of Action may be better defined : "a continuity of 
feeling or interest — a pervading emotion, an object, and a 
design, which, on its development, leaves on the mind a sense 
of completeness." 

On the Unity of Time Aristotle merely says, " Tragedy 
endeavours as much as possible to restrict itself to a single 
revolution of the sun-;" here, however, he does not lay down 
a precept, but only mentions a peculiarity in the Greek ex- 
amples, which he had before him. Examples have been 
given of violation of this unity of time, or identity of the 
imaginary with the material time; and that it was frequently 
observed, arose from the presence of the chorus ; where the 
chorus leaves the stage, the regular progress of time is in- 
terrupted, thus, in the Eumenkles of iEschylus, the whole 
space of time which Orestes needed for going from Delphi 
to Athens is omitted ; and between the three plays of a 
trilogy, which were intended to compose a whole, consider- 
able gaps of time often occur ; the moderns, in the division 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 203 

of their plays into acts, have found a convenient means of 
extending the compass of the imaginary time without incon- 
gruity. 

Aristotle says nothing on the Unity of Place ; the an- 
cients did not observe it invariably, only in general ; thus in 
the Eumenides and Ajax it is violated ; its observance arose 
from the presence of the chorus, who must first be got rid 
of before there could be any change of place, and from the 
difficulty of moving their scenery. The objection to the 
violation of the Unities of time and place is, that it would 
wrest the illusion of reality from us ; calculated verisimilari- 
ties, however, do not contribute one iota towards that il- 
lusion ; that demand of illusion in the literal sense, pushed 
to the extreme, would make all poetical form an impossi- 
bility, for we know that the persons represented did not 
speak our language, that passionate grief does not express 
itself in verse, and so forth. Theatrical illusion is a state 
of waking dreaminess, to which we voluntarily surrender 
ourselves ; to produce it, poet and actor must powerfully 
captivate the mind, and then the imagination passes lightly 
over the times and spaces which are presupposed and inti- 
mated, but which are omitted as being marked by nothing 
note -worthy, to fix itself solely on the decisive moments 
and prominent places. Voltaire derives the Unity of Place 
and Time from the Unity of Action ; thus, he says, " there 
must be Unity of Place, for a single action cannot be in 
progress in several places at once ;" he forgot that there 
may be a number of subordinate actions, and what should 
hinder these from proceeding in several places? " The 
Unity of Time," continues Voltaire, "is naturally con- 
nected with the two first. If the Poet represents a con- 
spiracy, and extends the action to fourteen days, he must 



204 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

give me an account of all that passes in these fourteen 
days." Certainly, of all that belongs to the matter in hand : 
but all the rest he passes by in silence, and it never enters 
into any one's head to wish to have such an account. 

Next to the structure of the ancient theatres, which na- 
turally led to the apparent continuity of time and fixity 
of place, the general observance of these unities was fa- 
vored by the nature of the materials on which the Greek 
Dramatists had to work. These materials were mythology, 
which in itself was fiction, and the treatment of which, in 
the hands of preceding poets, had collected into continuous 
and perspicuous masses, what, in reality, was broken and 
scattered about in various ways. Moreover, the heroic age, 
which they depicted, was at once very simple in its manners 
and marvellous in its incidents, and thus everything of its 
own accord went straight to the mark of a tragic decision. 

But the principal cause of the difference, in this respect, 
between the ancient and modern Dramatists, lies in the 
plastic spirit of the antique, and the picturesque spirit of 
romantic poetry. Sculpture directs our attention exclu- 
sively to the group which it sets before us, and indicates as 
slightly as possible the external circumstances ; Painting, 
on the contrary, delights to exhibit not only the principal 
figures, but the detail of the surrounding scenery, and all 
the secondary circumstances ; hence in the Dramatic art of 
the ancients, the external circumstances of place and time 
are in some measure annihilated, while in the romantic 
drama their alternations serve to adorn its more varied 
pictures. 



CHAPTER V. 

aristotle's treatise on poetry, 

( Twining s Translation.) 

My design is to treat of Poetry in general, and of its 
several species — to inquire, what is the proper effect of each 
— what construction of a fable, or plan, is essential to a 
good poem — of what, and hoio many, parts, each species 
consists ; with whatever else belongs to the same subject ; 
which I shall consider in the order that most naturally pre- 
sents itself. 

Epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, dithyrambics, as also, for 
the most part, the music of the flute, and of the lyre — all 
these are, in the most general view of them, Imitations^ 
(ovaai fxifit](Tig to avvoXov) ; differing, however, from each 
other in tlivee respects, according to the different means, the 
different objects, or the different manner, of their imitation. 
For as men, some through art, and some through habit, 
imitate various objects, by means of colour and figure, and 
others again, by mice ; so with respect to the arts above- 
mentioned, rhythm, words, and melody (pv9/j.6g, \uyog, apfxo- 
vlci), are the different means by which, either single, or va- 
riously combined, they all produce their imitation. 

For example : in the imitations of the flute, and the lyre, 
and of any other instruments capable of producing a simi- 



206 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

lar effect — as the syrinx, or pipe — melody and rhythm, only 
are employed. In those of dance, rhythm alone, without 
melody ; for there are dancers who, by rhythm applied to 
gesture, express manners, passions, and actions. 

The Epopoeia imitates by words alone, or by verse ; and 
that verse may be either composed of various metres, or 
confined, according to the practice hitherto established, to 
a single species. For we should otherwise have no general 
name, which would comprehend the Mimes of Sophron and 
Xenarchus, and the Bocratic dialogues ; or poems in iambic, 
elegiac, or other metres, in which the epic species of imita- 
tion may be conveyed. Custom, indeed, connecting the 
poetry or making with the metre, has denominated some 
elegiac poets, i. e. makers of elegiac verse ; others, epic poets, 
i. e. makers of hexameter verse ; thus distinguishing poets, 
not according to the nature of their imitation, but accord- 
ing to that of their metre only. For even they who com- 
pose treatises of medicine, or natural philosophy, in verse, 
are denominated Poets : yet Homer and Empedocles have 
nothing in common, except their metre ; the former, there- 
fore, justly merits the name of Poet ; while the other should 
rather be called a Physiologist than a Poet. 

So, also, though any one should chuse to convey his imi- 
tation in every kind of metre, promiscuously, as Chseremon 
has done in his Centaur, which is a medley of all sorts of 
verse, it would not immediately follow, that, on that account 
merely, he was entitled to the name of Poet. — But of this 
enough. 

There are, again, other species of poetry, which make use 
of all the means of imitation, rhythm, melody, and verse. 
Such are the dithyrambic, that of nomes, tragedy, and 
comedy : with this difference, however, that, in some of these, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 207 

they are employed all together, in others, separately. And 
such are the differences of these arts, with respect to the 
means by which they imitate. 

II. — But, as the objects of imitation are the actions of 
men (tird ds /j.ijliovvtcu ol fjLifxovfxzvoi irpaTTOvTag), and these 
men must of necessity be either good or bad (for on this 
does character principally depend ; the manners being in all 
men most strongly marked by virtue and vice), it follows, 
that we can only represent men, either as better than they 
actually are, or worse, or exactly as they are : just as, in 
painting, the pictures of Polygnotus were above the com- 
mon level of nature ; those of Pauson, below it ; those of 
Dionysius, faithful likenesses. 

Now it is evident that each of the imitations above-men- 
tioned will admit of these differences, and become a differ- 
ent kind of imitation, as it imitates objects that differ in this 
respect. Tins may be the case with dancing ; with the 
music of the flute, and of the lyre ; and also, with the 
poetry which employs toords, or verse, only, without melody 
or rhythm : thus, Homer has drawn men superior to what 
they are ; Cleophon, as they are ; Hegemon the Thasian, the 
inventor of parodies, and Nicochares, the author of the 
Deliad, worse than they are. 

So, again, with respect to dithyramUcs and nomes : in 
these, too, the imitation may be as different as that of the 
Persians by Timotheus, and the Cyclops by Philoxenus. 

Tragedy also, and Comedy, are distinguished in the same 
manner ; the aim of Comedy being to exhibit men worse 
than we find them, that of Tragedy, better. 

III. — There remains the third difference — that of the 
manner in which each of these objects may be imitated. 
For the poet, imitating the same object, and by the same 



208 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

means, may do it either in narration — and that, again, either 
personating other characters, as Homer does, or, in his own 
person throughout, without change . — or, he may imitate by 
representing all his characters as real, and employed in the 
very action itself. 

These, then, are the three differences by which all imita- 
tion is distinguished ; those of the means, the object, and the 
manner (lv ole re, kcu a, kcu fag) : so that Sophocles is, in one 
respect, an imitator of the same kind with Homer, as elevated 
characters are the objects of both ; in another respect, of 
the same kind with Aristophanes, as both imitate in the way 
of action ; whence, according to some, the application of the 
term drama [i. e. action\ to such poems. Upon this it is, 
that the Dorians ground their claim to the invention both 
of Tragedy and Comedy. For Comedy is claimed by the 
Megarians ; both by those of Greece, who contend that it 
took its rise in their popular government ; and by those of 
Sicily, among whom the poet Epicliarmus flourished long 
before Chionides and Magnes ; and Tragedy, also, is claimed 
by some of the Dorians of Peloponnesus. — In support of 
these claims they argue from the words themselves. They 
allege, that the Doric word for a village is Kw/x*?, the Attic, 
Arifiog ; and that Comedians were so called, not from Kwwd- 
&iv< — to revel — but from their strolling about the KWfiai, or 
villages, before they were tolerated in the city. They say, 
farther, that to do, or act, they express by the word §pav ; 
the Athenians by irpaTruv. 

And thus much as to the differences of imitation (jui'junwc) 
how many, and irfiai they are. 

IV. — Poetry, in general, seems to have derived its origin 
from two causes, each of them natural. 

1. To Imitate is instinctive in man from his infancy. By 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 209 

this he is distinguished from other animals, that he is, of 
all, the most imitative, and through this instinct receives 
his earliest education. All men, likewise, naturally receive 
pleasure from imitation. This is evident from what we ex- 
perience in viewing the works of imitative art ; for in them 
we contemplate with pleasure, and with the more pleasure, 
the more exactly they are imitated, such objects as, if real, 
we could not see without pain — as the figures of the mean- 
est and most disgusting animals, dead bodies, and the like. 
And the reason of this is, that to learn is a natural pleasure, 
not confined to philosophers, but common to all men ; with 
this difference only, that the multitude partake of it in a 
more transient and compendious manner. Hence the plea- 
sure they receive from a picture : in viewing it they learn, 
they infer, they discover, what every object is : that this, 
for instance, is such a particular man, &c. For if we sup- 
pose the object represented to be something which the spec- 
tator had never seen, in that case his pleasure will not arise 
from the imitation, but from the workmanship, the colours, 
or some such cause. 

Imitation, then, being thus natural to us ; and, 2dly, 
Melody and Rhythm being also natural, (for as to metre, it 
is plainly a species of rhythm,) those persons, in whom, ori- 
ginally, these propensities were the strongest, were naturally 
led to rude and extemporaneous attempts, which, gradually 
improved, gave birth to Poetry. 

But this Poetry, following the different characters of its 
authors, naturally divided itself into tivo different kinds. 
They, who were of a grave and lofty spirit, chose for their 
imitation the actions and adventures of elevated characters ; 
while Poets of a lighter turn, represented those of the 

p 



210 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

vicious and contemptible. And these composed, originally, 
Satires ; as the former did Hymns and Encomia. 

Of the lighter kind, we have no poem anterior to the 
time of Homer, though many such, in all probability, there 
were ; but from his time, we have : as, his Margites, and 
others of the same species in which the Iambic was intro- 
duced as the most proper measure ; and hence, indeed, the 
name of Iambic, because it was the measure in which they 
used to satirize each other (\afifiiZ,uv). 

And thus these old poets were divided into two classes — 
those who used the heroic, and those who used the iambic 
verse. 

And as, in the serious kind, Homer alone may be said to 
deserve the name of poet, not only on account of his other 
excellencies, but also of the dramatic spirit of his imita- 
tions ; so was he likewise the first who suggested the idea 
of Comedy, by substituting ridicule for invective, and giving 
that ridicule a dramatic cast : for his Margites bears the 
same analogy to Comedy, as his Iliad and Odyssey to Tra- 
gedy. But when Tragedy and Comedy had once made 
their appearance, succeeding Poets, according to the turn 
of their genius, attached themselves to the one or the other 
of these new species. The lighter sort, instead of Iambic, 
became Comic poets ; the graver, Tragic, instead of Heroic : 
and that on account of the superior dignity and higher es- 
timation of these latter forms (o-xr/juara) of Poetry. 

Whether Tragedy has now, with respect to its constitu- 
ent parts, received the utmost improvement of which it is 
capable, considered both in itself, and relatively to the 
theatre, is a question that belongs not to this place. 

Both Tragedy, then, and Comedy, having originated in a 
rude and unpremeditated manner — the first from the leaders 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 211 

in the Bltliyrambic hymns, the other from those Phallic 
songs, which, in many cities, remain still in use, — each ad- 
vanced gradually towards perfection, by such successive im- 
provements as were most obvious. 

Tragedy, after various changes, (woXXag peTafioXag /x£ra- 
fiaXovcra i) Tpaycpdia) reposed at length in the completion of 
its proper form. JEschylus first added a second actor : he 
also abridged the chorus, and made the dialogue the prin- 
cipal part of tragedy. Sophocles increased the number of 
actors to three, and added the decoration of painted sce- 
nery. It was also late before Tragedy threw aside the short 
and simple fable, and ludicrous language of its satyric ori- 
gin, and attained its proper magnitude and dignity. The 
Iambic measure was then first adopted : for, originally, the 
Trochaic tetrameter was made use of, as better suited to tho 
satyric and saltatorial genius of the poem at that time 
(dta. to crarvpiKriv koX 6p)(r]<7TiK(i)Tipav hvcil ttjv TroiijGiv) ; but 
when the dialogue was formed, nature itself pointed out the 
proper metre. For the iambic is, of all metres, the most 
colloquial (uaXiara yap Xcktikov %gti) ; as appears evidently 
from this fact, that our common conversation frequently falls 
into iambic verse ; seldom into hexameter, and only when we 
depart from the usual melody of speech. Episodes were also 
multiplied, and every other part of the drama successively 
improved and polished. 

But of this enough : to enter into a minute detail would 
perhaps be a task of some length. 

V. — Comedy, as was said before, is an imitation of bad 
characters : bad, not with respect to every sort of vice, but 
to the ridiculous only, as being a species of turpitude or de- 
formity ; since it may be defined to be — & fault or deformity 
of such sort as is neither painful nor destructive (to yap 



212 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

yeXotov ianv apaprrifia ri — kcu ov (j)OapTiKov). A ridiculous 
face, for example, is something ugly and distorted, but not 
so as to cause pain. 

The successive improvements of Tragedy, and the re- 
spective authors of them, have not escaped our knowledge ; 
but those of Comedy, from the little attention that was paid 
to it in its origin, remain in obscurity. For it was not till 
late, that Comedy was authorised by the magistrate, and 
carried on at the public expense : it was, at first, a private 
and voluntary exhibition. From the time, indeed, when it 
began to acquire some degree of form, its poets have been 
recorded; but who first introduced masks, or prologues, or 
augmented the number of actors — these, and other parti- 
culars of the same kind, are unknown. 

Epicharmus and Phormis were the first who invented 
comic fables. This improvement, therefore, is of Sicilian 
origin. But, of Athenian poets, Crates was the first who 
abandoned the Iambic form of comedy, and made use of 
invented and general stories, or fables. 

Epic poetry agrees so far with Tragic, as it is an imitation 
of great characters and actions, by means of words ; but in 
this it differs, that it makes use of only one kind of metre 
throughout, and that it is narrative. It also differs in 
length : for Tragedy endeavours, as far as possible, to con- 
fine its action with the limits of a single revolution of the 
sun, or nearly so ; but the time of Epic action is indefinite. 
This, however, at first was equally the case with Tragedy 
itself. 

Of their constituent parts, some are common to both, 
some peculiar to Tragedy. He, therefore, who is a judge of 
the beauties and defects of Tragedy, is, of course, equally 
a judge with respect to those of Epic poetry : for all the 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 213 

parts of the Epic poem are to be found in Tragedy : not all 
those of Tragedy in the Epic poem. 

VI. — Of the species of poetry which imitates in hexame* 
ters, and of Comedy, we shall speak hereafter. Let us now 
consider Tragedy ; collecting, first, from what has been al- 
ready said, its true and essential definition. Tragedy, then, 
is an imitation of an action that is important, entire, and of 
a proper magnitude — by language embellished and rendered 
pleasurable, but by different means, in different parts — in 
the icay, not of narration, but of action — effecting, through 
pity and terror, the correction and refinement of such pas- 
sions. ("Ecrnv ovv rpaywBla uiur\Gig irpa^ewg (nrovdalag kcu 
rtXtiag, fiiyeOog £\ov(jr}g' rjdvafxivi^ Xoy^, \tjjp\g kKaarov tljv 
tldwv Iv Toig fiopioig, cpu)VTb)v, kcu ov Si aTrayysXtag, St' tAtov 
Kai (pofiov TTtpaivovGa ti)v twv tolovtwv 7ra0r)ixaT(i)V Kadap- 

OLV.) 

Hy pleasurable language, I mean a language that has the 
embellishments of rhythm, melody, and metre ; and I add, 
by different means in different parts, because in some parts 
metre alone is employed, in others, melody. 

Now as Tragedy imitates by acting, the decoration, in the 
first place, must necessarily be one of its parts : then the 
melopceia (or music), and the diction; for these last include 
the means of tragic imitation. By diction I mean the me- 
trical composition. The meaning of melopceia is obvious to 
every one. 

Again : Tragedy being an imitation of an action, and 
the persons employed in that action being necessarily cha- 
racterized by their manners and their sentiments, since it is 
from these that actions themselves derive their character, it 
follows, that there must also be manners and sentiments, 
as the two causes of actions, and, consequently, of the 



214? THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

happiness or unhappiness of all men. The imitation of 
the action is the fable : for by fable I now mean the 
contexture of incidents, or the plot. By manners, I mean, 
whatever marks the characters of the persons. By senti- 
ments, whatever they say, whether proving any thing, or de- 
livering a general sentiment, &c. 

Hence, all Tragedy, must necessarily contain six parts, 
which, together, constitute its peculiar character or quality; 
fable, manners, diction, sentiments, decoration, and music, 
(jjv9og, Kai ?}0»j, k<u Xi^ig, icae diavoia, kol, oipig, kcu jueXo- 
Troua.) Of these parts, two relate to the means, one to the 
manner, and three to the object of imitation. And these 
are all. These specif c parts have been employed by most 
poets, and are to be found in (almost) every tragedy. 

But of all these parts the most important is the combina- 
tion of incidents, or the fable: because Tragedy is an imi- 
tation, not of men, but of actions, — of life, of happiness, 
and unhappiness : for happiness consists in action, and the 
supreme good itself, the very end of life, is action of a cer- 
tain kind, — not quality. Now the manners of men consti- 
tute only their quality or characters ; but it is by their ac- 
tions that they are happy, or the contrary. Tragedy, there- 
fore, does not imitate action, for the sake of imitating man- 
ners, but in the imitation of action, that of manners is of 
course involved. So that the action and the fable are the 
end of Tragedy ; and in every thing the end is of principal 
importance. 

Again — Tragedy cannot subsist without action; without 
manners it may : the tragedies of most modern poets have 
this defect ; a defect common, indeed, among poets in 
general. As among painters also, this is the case with 
Zeuxis, compared with Polygnotus : the latter excels in the 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 215 

expression of the manners ; there is no such expression in 
the pictures of Zeuxis. 

Farther ; suppose any one to string together a number 
of speeches, in which the manners are strongly marked, the 
language and the sentiments well turned; this will not be 
sufficient to produce the proper effect of Tragedy : that end 
will much rather be answered by a piece, defective in each 
of those particulars, but furnished with a proper fable and 
contexture of incidents. Just as in painting, the most 
brilliant colours spread at random, and without design, will 
give far less pleasure than the simplest outline of a figure. 

Add to this, that those parts of Tragedy, by means of 
which it becomes most interesting and affecting, are parts of 
the falle ; I mean revolutions and discoveries. 

As a farther proof, adventurers in tragic writing are 
sooner able to arrive at excellence in the language, and the 
manners, than in the construction of a plot ; as appears 
from almost all our earlier poets. The fable, then, is the 
principal part, the soul, as it were, of Tragedy ; and the 
manners are next in rank ; Tragedy being an imitation of 
an action, and through that, principally, of the agents. 

In the third place stand the sentiments. To this part it 
belongs to say such things as are true and proper ; which, in 
the dialogue, depends on the political and rhetorical arts ; 
for the ancients made their characters speak in the style of 
political and popular eloquence ; but now the rhetorical 
manner prevails. 

The manners are whatever manifests the disposition of the 
speaker. There are speeches, therefore, which are without 
manners, or character; as not containing any thing by 
which the propensities or aversions of the person who delivers 
them can be known. The sentiments comprehend whatever 



216 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



is said ; whether proving any thing, affirmatively, or nega- 
tively, or expressing some general reflection, &c. 

Fourth, in order, is the diction — the expression of the 
sentiments by words ; the power and effect of which is the 
same, whether in verse or prose. 

Of the remaining two parts, the music stands next ; of 
all the pleasurable accompaniments and embellishments of 
Tragedy, the most delightful. 

The decoration has also a great effect, but, of all the 
parts, is most foreign to the art. For the power of Tra- 
gedy is felt without representation, and actors; and the 
beauty of the decorations depends more on the art of the 
mechanic, than on that of the poet. 

VII. — These things being thus adjusted, let us go on to 
examine in what manner the Fable should be constructed, 
since this is the first, and most important part of Tragedy. 

Now we have defined Tragedy to be an imitation of an 
action that is complete, and entire ; and that has also a cer- 
tain magnitude ; for a thing may be entire, and a whole, and 
yet not be of any magnitude. 

1. By entire, I mean that which has a beginning, a middle, 
and an end. A beginning is that which does not, necessarily, 
suppose any thing before it, but which requires something to 
follow it. An end, on the contrary, is that which supposes 
something to precede it, either necessarily or probably ; but 
which nothing is required to follow. A middle is that which 
both supposes something to precede, and requires some- 
thing to follow. The poet, therefore, who would construct 
his fable properly, is not at liberty to begin, or end, where 
he pleases, but must conform to these definitions. 

2. Again: whatever is beautiful, whether it be an animal, 
or any other thing composed of different parts, must not 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 217 

only have those parts arranged in a certain manner, but 
must also be of a certain magnitude ; for beauty consists in 
magnitude and order. Hence it is that no very minute ani- 
mal can be beautiful ; the eye comprehends the whole too 
instantaneously to distinguish and compare the pans ; — 
neither, on the contrary, can one of a prodigious size be 
beautiful ; because, as all its pans cannot be seen at once, 
the whole, the unity of object, is lost to the spectator; as 
it would be, for example, if he were surveying an animal of 
many miles in length. As, therefore, in animals and other 
objects, a certain magnitude is requisite, but that magni- 
tude must be such as to present a whole easily comprehended 
by the eye ; so, in the fable, a certain length is requisite, but 
that length must be such as to present a whole easily com- 
prehended by the memory. 

With respect to the measure of this length — if referred 
to actual representation in the dramatic contests, it is a 
matter foreign to the an itself: for if a hundred tragedies 
were to be exhibited in concurrence, the length of each per- 
formance must be regulated by the hour-glass ; a practice 
of which, it is said, there have formerly been instances. 
But if we determine this measure by the nature of the thing 1 
itself, the more extensive the fable, consistently with the 
clear and easy comprehension of the whole, the more beau- 
tiful will it be, with respect to magnitude. — In general, we 
may say, that an action is sufficiently extended, when it is 
long enough to admit of a change of fortune from happy 
to unhappy, or the reverse, brought about by a succession, 
necessary or probable, of icell-connected incidents. 

VIII. — A fable is not one, as some conceive, merely be- 
cause the hero of it is one. For numberless events happen 
to one man. nianv of which are such as cannot be connected 



218 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

into one event ; and so, likewise, there are many actions of 
one man which cannot be connected into any one action. 
Hence appears the mistake of all those poets who have 
composed Herculeids, Theseids, and other poems of that 
kind. They conclude, that because Hercules was one, so 
also must be the fable of which he , is the subject. But 
Homer, among his many other excellencies, seems also to 
have been perfectly aware of this mistake, either from art 
or genius. For when he composed his Odyssey, he did not 
introduce all the events of his hero^ life, such, for instance, 
as the wound he received upon Parnassus — his feigned mad- 
ness when the Grecian army was assembling, &c. — events, 
not connected, either by necessary or probable consequence, 
with each other ; but he comprehended those only which 
have relation to one action; for such we call that of the 
Odyssey. — And in the same manner he composed his Iliad. 

As, therefore, in other mimetic arts, one imitation is an 
imitation of one thing, so here, the fable, being an imitation 
of an action, should be an imitation of an action that is one 
and entire; the parts of it being so connected, that if any 
one of them be either transposed, or taken away, the whole 
will be destroyed or changed : for whatever may be either 
retained, or omitted, without making any sensible differ- 
ence, is not properly a part. 

IX. — It appears, farther, from what has been said, that 
it is not the poetfs province to relate such things as have ac- 
tually happened, but such as might have happened— such as 
are possible, according either to probable or necessary con- 
sequence. For it is not by writing in verse or prose, that 
the historian and the poet are distinguished : the work of 
Herodotus might be versified ; but it would still be a species 
of history, no less with metre, than without. They are clis- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 219 

tinguished by this, that the one relates what has been, the 
other what might be. On this account, poetry is a more 
philosophical, and a more excellent thing than history ; for 
poetry is chiefly conversant about general truth ; history 
about particular. In what manner, for example, any per- 
son of a certain character would speak, or act, probably, or 
necessarily — this is general; and this is the object of poetry, 
even while it makes use of particular names. But what 
Alcibiades did, or what happened to Mm — this is particular 
truth. 

With respect to Comedy, this is now become obvious ; for 
here, the poet, when he has formed his plot of probable in- 
cidents, gives to his characters whatever names he pleases ; 
and is not, like the iambic poets, particular, and personal. 

Tragedy, indeed, retains the use of real names ; and the 
reason is, that, what we are disposed to believe, we must 
think possible : now what has never actually happened, we 
are not apt to regard as possible ; but what lias been is un- 
questionably so, or it could not have been at all. There 
are, however, some tragedies, in which one or two of the 
names are historical, and the rest feigned : there are even 
some, in which none of the names are historical ; such is 
Agatho's tragedy called the The Flower, for in that all is 
invention, both incidents and names ; and yet it pleases. It 
is by no means, therefore, essential, that a poet should con- 
fine himself to the known and established subjects of tra- 
gedy. Such a restraint would, indeed, be ridiculous ; since 
even those subjects that are known, are known, compara- 
tively, but to few, and yet are interesting to all. 

From all this it is manifest, that a poet should be a poet, 
or maker of fables, rather than of verses ; since it is imitation 
that constitutes the poet, and of this imitation actions are 



220 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

the object : nor is he the less a poet, though the incidents 
of his fable should chance to be such as have actually hap- 
pened ; for nothing hinders, but that some true events may 
possess that probability, the invention of which entitles him 
to the name of poet. 

Of simple fables or actions the episodic are the worst. I 
call that an episodic fable (tTrucroSiiLSri favdov), the episodes 
of which follow each other without any probable or neces- 
sary connexion ; a fault into which bad poets are betrayed 
by their want of skill, and good poets by the players : for 
in order to accommodate their pieces to the purposes of 
rival performers in the dramatic contests, they spin out the 
action beyond their powers, and are thus frequently forced 
to break the connexion and continuity of its parts. 

But Tragedy is an imitation, not only of a complete action, 
but also of an action excitingly and terror. Now that pur- 
pose isbest answered by such events as are not only unexpected, 
but unexpected consequences of each other: for, by this means 
they will have more of the wonderful, than if they appeared 
to be the effects of chance ; since we find, that among events 
merely casual, those are the most wonderful and striking 
which seem to imply design : as when, for instance, the 
statue of Mitys at Argos killed the very man who had 
murdered Mitys, by falling down upon him as he was sur- 
veying it ; events of this kind not having the appearance of 
accident. It follows, then, that such fables as are formed 
on these principles must be the best. 

X. — Fables are of two sorts, simple and complicated 
(Ewrl Se tCjv fxvOwv ol plv an\o7, ol St TreirXeyfjiivoi) ; for so 
also are the actions themselves of which they are imitations. 
An action (having the continuity and unity prescribed) I 
call simple, when its catastrophe is produced without either 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 221 

revolution or discovery ; complicated, when with one, or both. 
And these should arise from the structure of the fable itself, 
so as to be the natural consequences, necessary or probable, 
of what has preceded in the action. For there is a wide 
difference between incidents that follow from, and incidents 
that follow only after, each other. 

XI. — A revolution (TrcpnrzTua), is a change into the reverse 
of what is expected from the circumstances of the action ; 
and that, produced, as we have said, by probable or neces- 



Thus, in the CEdipus Tyrannies, the messenger, meaning 
to make CEdipus happy, and to relieve him from the dread 
he was under with respect to his mother, by making known 
to him his real birth, produces an effect directly contrary to 
his intention. Thus, also, in the tragedy of Lynceus — Lyn- 
ceus is led to suffer death, Danaus follows to inflict it ; but 
the event resulting from the course of the incidents is, that 
Danaus is killed, and Lynceus saved. 

A discovery (avayixvpicrig), as, indeed, the word implies, 
is a, change from unknown to known, happening between those 
characters whose happiness, or unhappiness, forms the ca- 
tastrophe of the drama, and terminating in friendship or 
enmity. 

The best sort of discovery is that which is accompanied 
by a revolution, as in the CEdipus. 

There are also other discoveries ; for inanimate things of 
any kind may be recognized in the same manner ; and we 
may discover whether such a particular thing was, or was 
not, done by such a person : but the discovery most appro- 
priated to the fable and the action is that above defined ; 
because such discoveries and revolutions must excite either 
pity or terror ; and Tragedy we have defined to be an imi- 



222 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

tation of pitiable and terrible actions : and because, also, by 
them the event, happy or unhappy, is produced. 

Now discoveries, being relative things, are sometimes of 
one of the persons only, the other being already known ; and 
sometimes they are reciprocal : thus, Iphigenia is discovered 
to Orestes by the letter which she charges him to deliver, and 
Orestes is obliged, by other means, to make himself known 
to her. These then are two parts of the fable — revolution 
and discovery. There is yet a third, which we denominate 
disasters (iradog). The two former have been explained. 
Disasters comprehend all painful or destructive actions ; the 
exhibition of death, bodily anguish, wounds, and every 
thing of that kind. 

XII. — The parts of Tragedy which are necessary to con- 
stitute its quality, have been already enumerated. Its parts 
of quantity — the distinct parts into which it is divided — are 
these : prologue, episode, exode, and chorus ; which last is 
also divided into the par ode, and the stasimon. These are 
common to all tragedies. The commoi are found in some 
only. 

The prologue is all that part of a Tragedy which precedes 
the par ode of the chorus. 

The episode, all that part which is included between entire 
choral odes. The exode, that part which has no choral ode 
after it. 

Of the choral part, the parode is the first speech of the 
whole chorus : the stasimon includes all those choral odes that 
are without anapwsts and trochees. 

The commos is a general lamentation of the chorus and 
the actors together (Kofi/nog ds, Oprivog koivoq x°P°v kc " " 7r ^ 
GKYivrig). Such are the separate parts into which Tragedy 
is divided. Its parts of quality were before explained. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 223 

XIII. — The order of the subject leads us to consider, in 
the next place, what the poet should aim at, and what avoid, 
in the construction of his fable ; and by what means the 
purpose of Tragedy may be best effected. 

Now since it is requisite to the perfection of a tragedy, 
that its plot should be of the complicated, not of the simple 
kind, and that it should imitate such actions as excite terror 
aii&pity (this being the peculiar property of the tragic 
imitation), it follows evidently, in the first place, that the 
change from prosperity to adversity should not be repre- 
sented as happening to a virtuous character ; for this raises 
disgust, rather than terror or compassion. Neither should 
the contrary change from adversity to prosperity be exhi- 
bited in a vicious character : this, of all plans, is the most 
opposite to the genius of Tragedy, having no one property 
that it ought to have ; for it is neither gratifying in a moral 
view, nor affecting, nor terrible. Nor, again, should the fall 
of a very lad man from prosperous to adverse fortune be 
represented : because, though such a subject may be pleasing 
from its moral tendency, it will produce neither pity nor ter- 
ror. For our pity is excited by misfortunes undeservedly 
suffered, and our terror by some resemblance between the 
sufferer and ourselves. Neither of these effects will, there- 
fore, be produced by such an event. 

There remains then for our choice the character between 
these extremes ; that of a person neither eminently virtuous 
or just, nor yet involved in misfortune by deliberate vice, or 
villany, but by some error of human frailty : and this per- 
son should, also, be some one of high fame and flourishing 
prosperity. For example, (JEdipus, Thyestes, or other illus- 
trious men of such families. 

Hence it appears, that, to be well constructed, a fable, 



224 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

contrary to the opinion of some, should be single, rather 
than double ; that the change of fortune should not be from 
adverse to prosperous, but the reverse ; and that it should 
be the consequence, not of vice, but of some great frailty, 
in a character such as has been described, or better rather 
than morse. 

These principles are confirmed by experience ; for poets 
formerly admitted almost any story into the number of tra- 
gic subjects ; but now, the subjects of the best tragedies are 
confined to a few families — to Alcmwon, (Edipus, Orestes, 
Meleager, Thyestes, Telephus, and others, the sufferers, or 
the authors, of some terrible calamity. 

The most perfect tragedy, then, according to the princi- 
ples of the art, is of this construction. Whence appears 
the mistake of those critics who censure Euripides for this 
practice in his tragedies, many of which terminate unhap- 
pily ; for this, as we have shewn, is right. And, as the 
strongest proof of it, we find that upon the stage, and in 
the dramatic contests, such tragedies, if they succeed, have 
always the most tragic effect : and Euripides, though in other 
respects faulty in the conduct of his subjects, seems clearly 
to be the most tragic of all poets. 

I place in the second rank that kind of fable to which 
some assign the first ; that which is of a double construction, 
like the Odyssey, and also ends in two opposite events, to 
the good, and to the had, characters. That this passes for 
the best, is owing to the weakness of the spectators, to 
whose wishes the poets accommodate their productions. 
This kind of pleasure, however, is not the proper pleasure of 
Tragedy, but belongs rather to Comedy ; for there, if even 
the bitterest enemies, like Orestes, and JEgisthns^ are intro- 
duced, they quit the scene at last in perfect friendship, and 
no blood is shed on either side. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 225 

XIV. — Terror and pity may be raised by the decoration — 
the mere spectacle ; but they may also arise from the cir- 
cumstances of the action itself ; which is far preferable, and 
shews a superior poet. For the fable should be so con- 
structed, that, without the assistance of the sight, its inci- 
dents may excite horror and commiseration in those who 
hear them only : an effect which every one, who hears the 
fable of the (Edipus, must experience. But to produce this 
effect by means of the decoration, discovers want of art in 
the poet ; who must also be supplied by the public with an 
expensive apparatus. 

As to those poets who make use of the decoration in or- 
der to produce, not the terrible, but the marvellous only, 
their purpose has nothing in common with that of tragedy ; 
for we are not to seek for every sort of pleasure from tra- 
gedy, but for that only which is proper to the species. 

Since, therefore, it is the business of the tragic poet to give 
that pleasure, which arises from pity and terror, through 
imitation, it is evident, that he ought to produce that effect 
by the circumstances of the action itself. 

Let us, then, see of what kind those incidents are, which 
appear most terrible or piteous. 

Now, such actions must, of necessity, happen between 
persons who are either friends, or enemies, or indifferent to 
each other. If an enemy kills, or purposes to kill, an enemy, 
in neither case is any commiseration raised in us, beyond 
what necessarily arises from the nature of the action itself. 

The case is the same, when the persons are neither friends 
nor enemies. But when such disasters happen between 
friends — when, for instance, the brother kills, or is going to 
kill, his brother, the son his father, the mother her son, or 
the reverse, — these, and others of a similar kind, are the 

Q 



226 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

proper incidents for the poet's choice. The received tragic 
subjects, therefore, he is not at liberty essentially to alter ; 
Clytaminestra must die by the hand of Orestes, and Eriphyle 
by that of Alcmwon : but it is his province to invent other 
subjects, and to make a skilful use of those which he finds 
already established. What I mean by a skilful use, I pro- 
ceed to explain. 

The atrocious action may be perpetrated knowingly and 
intentionally, as was usual with the earlier poets ; and as 
Euripides, also, has represented Medea destroying her chil- 
dren. 

It may, likewise, be perpetrated by those who are ignorant, 
at the time, of the connexion between them and the injured 
person, which they afterwards discover ; like (Edijpus, in 
Sophocles. There, indeed, the action itself does not make 
a part of the drama : the Alcmwon of Astydamas, and 
Telegonus in the Ulysses Wounded, furnish instances within 
the tragedy. There is yet a third way, where a person 
upon the point of perpetrating, through ignorance, some 
dreadful deed, is prevented by a sudden discovery. 

Beside these, there is no other proper way. For the 
action must of necessity be either done or not done, and that, 
either with knowledge, or without : but of all these ways, 
that of being ready to execute, knowingly, and yet not ex- 
ecuting, is the worst ; for this is, at the same time, shocking, 
and yet not tragic, because it exhibits no disastrous event. 
It is, therefore, never, or very rarely, made use of. The at- 
tempt of Hoemon to kill Creon, in the Antigone, is an ex- 
ample. 

Next to this, is the actual execution of the purpose. 

To execute, through ignorance, and afterwards to dis- 
cover, is better: for thus the shocking atrociousness is 
avoided, and at the same time, the discovery is striking. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 22? 

But the best of all these ways is the last. Thus, in the 
Tragedy of Cresphontes, Merope, in the very act of putting 
her son to death, discovers him, and is prevented. In the 
Jphigenia, the sister, in the same manner, discovers her 
brother ; and in the Helle, the son discovers his mother, at 
the instant when he was going to betray her. 

On this account it is, that the subjects of Tragedy, as 
before remarked, are confined to a small number of families. 
For it was not to art, but to fortune, that poets applied 
themselves to find incidents of this nature. Hence the ne- 
cessity of having recourse to those families in which such 
calamities have happened. Of the plot, or fable, and its 
requisites, enough has now been said. 

XV. — With respect to the Manners, four things are to 
be attended to by the poet. 

First, and principally, they should be good (xpWTa). Now 
manners, or character, belong, as we have said before, to any 
speech or action that manifests a certain disposition ; and 
they are bad, or good, as the disposition manifested is bad, 
or good. This goodness of manners may be found in per- 
sons of every description ; the manners of a woman, or of a 
slave, may be good ; though, in general, women are, per- 
haps, rather bad than good, and slaves altogether bad. 

The second requisite, '^propriety, (to. apfioTTovTa). There 
is a manly character of bravery and fierceness, which can- 
not, with propriety, be given to a woman. 

The third requisite is resemblance (to o/uloiov) : for this is 
a different thing from their being good aud proper, as above 
described. 

The fourth, is uniformity (to 6;j.a\6v) ; for even though 
the model of the poet's imitation be some person of unimi- 
form manners, still that person must be represented as uni- 
formly muniform. (bfxaXwg avwfxaXov del thai.) 



228 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

We have an example of manners unnecessarily had, in 
the character of Menelaus in the tragedy of Orestes ; of 
improper and unbecoming manners, in the lamentation of 
Ulysses in Scylla, and in the speech of Melanippe : of un- 
uniform manners, in the Iphigenia at Aulis ; for there, the 
Iphigenia, who supplicates for life, has no resemblance to 
the Iphigenia of the conclusion. 

In the manners, as in the fable, the poet should always 
aim, either at what is necessary, or what is probable; so that 
such a character shall appear to speak or act necessarily, or 
probably, in such a manner, and this event to be the neces- 
sary or probable consequence of that. — Hence it is evident, 
that the development also of a fable should arise out of the 
fable itself, and not depend upon machinery, as in the Medea, 
or in the incidents relative to the return of the Greeks, in 
the Iliad. The proper application of machinery is to such 
circumstances as are extraneous to the Drama ; such, as 
either happened before the time of the action, and could not, 
by human means, be known ; or, are to happen after, and 
require to be foretold : for to the gods we attribute the 
knowledge of all things. But nothing improbable should be 
admitted in the incidents of the fable ; or, if it cannot be 
avoided, it should, at least, be confined to such as are with- 
out the tragedy itself ; as in the (Edipus of Sophocles. 

Since Tragedy is an imitation of what is best, we should 
follow the example of skilful portrait-painters ; who, while 
they express the peculiar lineaments, and produce a likeness, 
at the same time improve upon the original. And thus, too, 
the poet, when he imitates the manners of passionate men 
(or of indolent, or any other of a similar kind), should draw 
an example approaching rather to a good, than to a hard 
and ferocious character : as Achilles is drawn, by Agatho, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 229 

and by Homer. These things the poet should keep In view ; 
and, besides these, whatever relates to those senses which 
have a necessary connection with poetry : for here, also, he 
may often err. But of this enough has been said in the 
treatises already published. 

XVI. — What is meant by a Discovery, has already been 
explained. Its Finds are the following. 

First, the most inartificial of all, and to which, from 
poverty of invention, the generality of poets have recourse 
— is the discovery by visible signs, (77 $ia ar}>miov). Of these 
signs, some are natural ; as the lance with which the family 
of the eariliborn Tliebans were marked : others are adventi- 
tious ; (liriKT-qra') and of these, some are corporal, as scars; 
some external, as necklaces, bracelets, &c. or the little boat 
by which the discovery is made in the tragedy of Tyro. 
Even these, however, may be employed with more or less 
skill. The discovery of Ulysses, for example, to his nurse, 
by means of his scar, is very different from his discovery, 
by the same means, to the herdsmen. For all those dis- 
coveries, in which the sign is produced by way of proof, are 
inartificial. Those which, like that in the Washing of 
Ulysses happen suddenly and casually, are better. 

Secondly, — Discoveries invented, at pleasure, by the poet, 
and on that account, still inartificial. For example ; in the 
Iphigenia, Orestes, after having discovered his sister, discovers 
himself to her. She, indeed, is discovered by the letter ; 
but Orestes, by [verbal proofs :] and these are such as the 
poet chooses to make him produce, not such as arise from 
the circumstances of the fable. This kind of discovery, 
therefore, borders upon the fault of that first mentioned : for 
some of the things from which those proofs are drawn are even 
such as might have been actually produced as visible signs. 



230 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

Another instance, is the discovery by the sound of the 
shuttle in the Tereus of Sophocles. 

Thirdly. — The discovery occasioned by memory ; (77 $ia 
fivrifxr}g') as, when some recollection is excited by the view of 
a particular object. Thus, in the Cyprians of Dicosogenes, a 
discovery is produced by tears shed at the sight of a pic- 
ture : and thus, in the Tale of Alcinous, Ulysses, listening 
to the bard, recollects, weeps, and is discovered. 

Fourthly. — The discovery occasioned by reasoning or in- 
ference ; (f) k avWoytafiov') such as that in the Choephoroe: 
" The person, who is arrived, resembles me — no one re- 
sembles me but Orestes — it must be he !" And that of 
Polyides the sophist, in his Iphigenia ; for the conclusion of 
Orestes was natural — " It had been his sister's lot to be 
sacrificed, and it was now his own P That, also, in the 
Thy dens of Theodectes—" He came to find his son, and he 
himself must perish !" And thus the daughters of Phineus, 
in the tragedy denominated from them, viewing the place to 
which they were led, infer their fate — " there they were to 
die, for there they were exposed !" There is also a com- 
pound sort of discovery, arising from false inference in the 
audience, as in Ulysses the False Messenger : he asserts, that 
he shall know the bow, which he had not seen ; the audience 
falsely infer, that a discovery by that means will follow. 

But, of all discoveries, the best is that which arises from 
the action itself and in which a striking effect is produced 
by probable incidents. Such is that in the (Edipus of So- 
phocles, and that in the Iphigenia; for nothing is more na- 
tural than her desire of conveying the letter. Such dis- 
coveries are the best, because they alone are effected with- 
out the help of invented proofs, or bracelets, &c. Next to 
these, are the discoveries by inference. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 231 

XVII. — The poet, both when he plans, and when he 
writes, his tragedy, should put himself, as much as possible, 
in the place of a spectator ; for, by this means seeing every 
thing distinctly, as if present at the action, he will discern 
what is proper, and no inconsistencies will escape him. The 
fault objected to Carcinus is a proof of this. Amphiaraus 
had left the temple : this the poet, for want of conceiving 
the action to pass before his eyes, overlooked ; but in the 
representation, the audience were disgusted, and the piece 
condemned. 

In composing, the poet should even, as much as possible, 
be an actor : for, by natural sympathy, tliey are most per- 
suasive and affecting, who are under the influence of actual 
passion. We share the agitation of those who appear to 
be truly agitated — the anger of those who appear to be 
truly angry. 

Hence it is that poetry demands either great natural 
quickness of parts, or an enthusiasm allied to madness. By 
the first of these, we mould ourselves with facility to the 
imitation of every form ; by the other, transported out of 
ourselves, we become what we imagine. 

When the poet invents a subject, he should first draw a 
general sketch of it, and afterwards give it the detail of its 
episodes, and extend it. The general argument, for in- 
stance, of the Ipldgenia should be considered in this way — 
" A virgin, on the point of being sacrificed, is imperceptibly 
conveyed away from the altar, and transported to another 
country, where it was the custom to sacrifice all strangers 
to Diana. Of these rites she is appointed priestess. It 
happens, some time after, that her brother arrives there." 
But why ? — because an oracle had commanded him, for 
some reason exterior to the general plan. For what pur- 
pose ? This also is exterior to the plan. " He arrives, is 



232 THE GRECIAN DKAMA. 

seized, and, at the instant that he is going to be sacrificed, 
the discovery is made." — And this may be either in the way 
of Euripides, or like that of Polyides, by the natural reflec- 
tion of Orestes, that " it was his fate also, as it had been 
his sister's, to be sacrificed :" by which exclamation he is 
saved. 

After this, the poet, when he has given names to his cha- 
racters, should proceed to the episodes of his action ; and 
he must take care that these belong properly to the subject ; 
like that of the madness of Orestes, which occasions his 
being taken, and his escape by means of the ablution. In 
dramatic poetry the episodes are short ; but in the epic, 
they are the means of drawing out the poem to its proper 
length. The general story of the Odyssey, for example, 
lies in a small compass : " A certain man is supposed to be 
absent from his own country for many years — he is perse- 
cuted by Neptune, deprived of all his companions, and left 
alone. At home his affairs are in disorder — -the suitors of 
his wife dissipating his wealth, and plotting the destruction 
of his son. Tossed by many tempests, he at length arrives, 
and, making himself known to some of his family, attacks 
his enemies, destroys them, and remains himself in safety ." 
This is the essential ; the rest is episode. 

XVIII. — Every tragedy consists of two parts — the 
complication, (S«ne,) and the development, (Kiaiq). The 
complication is often formed by incidents supposed prior to 
the action, and by a part, also, of those that are icithin the 
action ; the rest form the development. I call complication, 
all that is between the beginning of the piece, and the last 
part, where the change of fortune commences : — development, 
all between the beginning of that change, and the conclu- 
sion. Thus, in the Lynceas of Theodectes, the events an- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 233 

tecedent to the action, and the seizure of the child, con- 
stitute the complication : the development is from the accusa- 
tion of murder to the end. 

There are four kinds of Tragedy, deducible from so many 
parts, which have been mentioned. One kind is the com- 
plicated, (7T£7r\Eyf.i£vti') where all depends on revolution and 
discovert/: another is the disastrous, (iraOriTiKiy) such as 
those on the subject of Ajax or Ixion : another, the moral, 
(riOiKii) as the Phthiotides and the Peleus : and, fourthly, 
the simple, (ohv) such as the Phorcides, the Prometheus, 
and all those tragedies, the scene of which is laid in the 
infernal regions. 

It should be the poet's aim to make himself master of all 
these manners ; of as many of them, at least, as possible, 
and those the best : especially, considering the captious cri- 
ticism to which, in these days, he is exposed. For the pub- 
lic, having now seen different poets excel in each of these 
different kinds, expect every single poet to unite in himself, 
and to surpass, the peculiar excellencies of them all. 

One tragedy may justly be considered as the same with 
another, or different, not according as the subjects, but 
rather according as the complication and development are 
the same or different. Many poets, when they have com- 
plicated well, develope baclly. They should endeavour to 
deserve equal applause in both. 

We must also be attentive to what has been often men- 
tioned, and not construct a tragedy upon an epic plan. By 
an epic plan, I mean a fable composed of many fables ; as 
if any one, for instance, should take the entire fable of the 
Iliad for the subject of a tragedy. In the epic poem, the 
length of the whole admits of a proper magnitude in the 
parts ; but in the Drama, the effect of such a plan is far 



234 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

different from what is expected. As a proof of this, those 
poets, who have formed the whole of the destruction of 
Troy into a tragedy, instead of confining themselves (as 
Euripides, but not JEschylus, has done, in the story of 
Niobe^) to a part, have either been condemned in the repre- 
sentation, or have contended without success. Even Agatlio 
has failed on this account, and on this only ; for in revolu- 
tions, and in actions, also, of the simple kind, these poets 
succeed wonderfully in what they aim at ; and that is, the 
union of tragic effect with moral tendency : as when, for ex- 
ample, a character of great wisdom, but without integrity, 
is deceived, like Sisyphus ; or a brave, but unjust man, con- 
quered. Such events, as Agatha says, are probable, " as it 
is probable, in general, that many things should happen 
contrary to probability." 

The chorus should be considered as one of the persons in 
the Drama ; should be a part of the whole, and a sharer in 
the action : not as in Euripides, but as in Sophocles, As 
for other poets — their choral songs have no more connexion 
with their subject than with that of any other tragedy : and 
hence, they are now become detached pieces, inserted at 
pleasure : a practice introduced by Agatho. Yet where is 
the difference between this arbitrary insertion of an ode, 
and the transposition of a speech, or even of a whole episode, 
from one tragedy to another I 

XIX. — Of the other parts of Tragedy enough has now 
been said. We are next to consider the diction and the 



For what concerns the sentiments we refer to the princi- 
ples laid down in the books on Rhetoric ; for to that subject 
they more properly belong. The sentiments include whatever 
is the object of speech ; as, for instance, to prove, to confute, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 235 

to move the passions — pity, terror, anger, and the like ; to 
amplify, or to diminish. But it is evident, that, with re- 
spect to the things themselves also, when the poet would 
make them appear pitiable, or terrible, or great, or proba- 
ble, he must draw from the same sources ; with this differ- 
ence only, that in the drama these things must appear to 
be such, without being shewn to be such ; whereas, in ora- 
tory they must be made to appear so by the speaker, and in 
consequence of what he says : otherwise, what need of an 
orator, if they already appear so, in themselves, and not 
through his eloquence I 

With respect to diction, one part of its theory is that 
which treats of the figures of speech ; such as commanding, 
entreating, relating, menacing, interrogating, answering, and 
the like. But this belongs, properly, to the art of acting, 
and to the professed masters of that kind. The poefs 
knowledge or ignorance of these things cannot any way 
materially affect the credit of his art. For who will sup- 
pose there is any justice in the cavil of Protagoras — that in 
the words, " the wrath, goddess, sing," the poet, where 
he intended a prayer, had expressed a command : for he in- 
sists, that to say, do this, or do it not, is to command. This 
subject, therefore, we pass over, as belonging to an art dis- 
tinct from that of poetry. 

XX. — To all diction belong the following parts : the letter, 
the syllable, the conjunction, the noun, the verb, the article, 
the case, the discourse or speech. 

1. A letter is an indivisible sound, yet not all such sounds 
are letters, but those only that are capable of forming an 
intelligible sound. For there are indivisible sounds of brute 
creatures ; but no such sounds are called letters. Letters 
are of three kinds — vowels, semivowels, and mutes. The 



236 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

vowel is that which has a distinct sound without articulation; 
as A or 0. The semivowel, that which has a distinct sound 
with articulation, as S and R. The mute, that which, with 
articulation, has yet no sound by itself ; but joined with one 
of those letters that have some sound, becomes audible, as 
G and D. These all differ from each other as they are pro- 
duced by some different configurations, and in different 
parts of the mouth ; as they are aspirated or smooth, long 
or short ; as their tone is acute, grave, or intermediate : the 
detail of all which is the business of the metrical treatises. 

2. A syllable is a sound without signification, composed 
of a mute and a vowel ; for GR, without A, is not a syl- 
lable ; with A, as GBA, it is. But these differences, also, 
are the subject of the metrical art. 

3. A conjunction is a sound without signification, * * * 
* * * * of such a nature, as, out of several sounds, each 
of them significant, to form one significant sound. 

4. An article is a sound without signification, which marks 
the beginning or the end of a sentence, or distinguishes, as 
when we say, the word (pri/m, the word7T£/of,&c. ****** 

5. A noun is a sound composed of other sounds ; signifi- 
cant, without expression of time, and of which no part is 
by itself significant: for even in double words the parts are 
not taken in the sense that separately belongs to them. Thus, 
in the word Theodorus, dorus is not significant. 

6. A verb is a sound composed of other sounds ; signifi- 
cant, with expression of time, and of which, as of the noun, 
no part is by itself significant. Thus, in the words man, 
white, indication of time is not included ; in the words, he 
walks, we walked, &c. it is included ; the one expressing the 
present time, the other the past. 

7. Cases belong to nouns and verbs. Some cases express 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 237 

relation ; as of, to, and the like : others number, as man, or 
nun, &jC. Others relate to action or pronunciation ; as 
those of interrogation, of command, &c. for IfiaSicrs ; [did 
he go ?~\ and fiaZfe, [go,] are verbal cases of that kind. 

8. Discourses, or speech, is a sound significant, composed 
of other sounds, some of which are significant by themselves: 
for all discourse is not composed of verbs and nouns : the 
definition of man, for instance. Discourse or speech may 
subsist without a verb : some significant part, however, it 
must contain ; significant, as the word Cleon is, in " Clem 
watts" 

A discourse or speech is one in two senses ; either as it 
signifies one thing, or several things made one by conjunction. 
Thus the Iliad is one by conjunction : the definition of man, 
by signifying one thing, 

XXI. — Of words some are single, by which I mean, com- 
posed of parts not significant, and some double ; of which 
last some have one part significant, and the other not sig- 
nificant ; and some, both parts significant. A word may 
also be triple, quadruple, &c. like many of those used by the 
Megaliotce, as Hermocaicoxanthus. Every word is either 
common, or foreign, or metaphorical, or ornamental, or in- 
vented, or extended, or contracted, or altered. 

By common w 7 ords I mean such as are in general and es- 
tablished use. By foreign, such as belong to a different lan- 
guage : so that the same word may evidently be both com- 
mon tind foreign, though not to the same people. The word 
myvvov, to the Cyprians is common, to us foreign. 

A metaphorical word is a word transferred from its 
proper sense ; either from genus to species, or from species 
to genus, or from one species to another, or in the way of 
analogy. 



238 >THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

1. From genus to species : as> 

Secure in yonder port my vessel stands. 
For to be at anchor is one species of standing or being fixed. 

2. From species to genus : as, 

To Ulysses, 

A thousand generous deeds we owe • 

For a thousand is a certain definite many, which is here used 
for many in general. 

3. From one species to another : as, 

XaXKty awo itjjvx^v apvaag. 
And, 

Tap arupu X^Kty* 
For here the poet uses Tafxuv, ft cut off, instead of hpvaai, 
to draw forth, and apvaai instead of rafxuv ; each being a 
species of talcing away. 

4. In the way of analogy — when, of four terms, the 
second bears the same relation to the first, as the fourth to 
the third ; in which case the fourth may be substituted for 
the second, and the second for the fourth. And sometimes 
the proper term is also introduced, besides its relative term. 

Thus a cwp bears the same relation to Bacchus, as a 
SM0M to Mars. A shield, therefore, may be called the cup 
of Mars, and a cup ^ shield of Bacchus. Again — evening 
being to day, what old age is to life, the evening may be 
called the old age of the day, and old age, the evening of life; 
or as Empedocles has expressed it, " Life's setting sun." It 
sometimes happens, that there is no proper analogous term, 
answering to the term borrowed ; which yet may be used in 
the same manner as if there were. For instance — to sow 
is the term appropriated to the action of dispersing seed 
upon the earth ; but the dispersion of rays from the sun is 
expressed by no appropriated term ; it is, however, with re* 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 239 

spect to the surfs light, what sowing is with respect to seed. 
Hence the poet's expression of the sun — > 

Sowing abroad, 

His heaven-created flame. 

There is, also, another way of using this kind of metaphor, 
by adding to the borrowed word a negation of some of those 
qualities which belong to it in its proper sense : as if, instead 
of calling a shield the cup of Mars, we should call it the 
wineless cup. 

An invented word is a word never before used by any one, 
but coined by the poet himself, for such it appears there are ; 
as tpvvTai for Kspara, horns, or ap-qriqp, for hpzvg, a priest. 

A word is extended when for the proper vowel a longer 
is substituted, or a syllable is inserted. A word is contracted 
when some part of it is retrenched. Thus iroX^og for ttoXwq, 
and Ilri\r)Lct$£(*) for UriXuadov, are extended words: con- 
tracted, such as Kpi, and do), and 6ip : e. g. 

pia yiv£Tca ajii(j)OT£pii}v oip. 

An altered word is a word of which part remains in its 
usual state, and part is of the poet's making : as in 
A&Tepov Kara fJiaZov. 
S&Ttpog is for $£%10Q. 

Farther — nouns are divided into masculine, feminine, and 
neuter. The masculine are those which end in v, p, <j, or in 
some letter compounded of a and a mute ; these are two, ^ 
and £. The feminine, are those which end in the vowels 
always long, as 77, or w ; or in a of the doubtful vowels : so 
that the masculine and the feminine terminations are equal 
in number ; for as to \p and £, they are the same with ter- 
minations in o-. No noun ends in a mute or short vowel. 
There are but three ending in 1 ; /ueXt, KOfXfxi, TT£ir£pi : five 
ending in v ; ttojv, vawv, yovv, dopv, cigtv. 



240 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

The n&uter terminate in these two last mentioned vowels, 
and in v and <r. 

XXII. — The excellence of diction consists in being per- 
spicuous without being mean. The most perspicuous is that 
which is composed of common words, but at the same time 
it is mean. Such is the poetry of Cleophon, and that of 
Bthenelus. That language, on the contrary, is elevated, and 
remote from the vulgar idiom, which employs unusual words : 
by unusual I mean foreign, metaphorical, extended-~a\\, in 
short, that are not common words. Yet, should a poet 
compose his diction entirely of such words, the result would 
be either an enigma, or a barbarous jargon : an enigma if 
composed of metaphors, a barbarous jargon if composed of 
foreign words. For the essence of an enigma consists in 
putting together things apparently inconsistent and impossible, 
and at the same time saying nothing but what is true. Now 
this cannot be effected by the mere arrangement of the 
words ; by the metaphorical use of them it may, as in this 
enigma— 

A man I once beheld, [and wondering view'd,] 
Who, on another, brass with fire had glew'd. 

With respect to barbarism, it arises from the use of 
foreign words. A judicious intermixture is therefore re- 
quisite. 

Thus the foreign word, the metaphorical, the ornamental, 
and the other species before mentioned, will raise the lan- 
guage above the vulgar idiom, and common words will give 
it perspicuity. But nothing contributes more considerably 
to produce clearness, without vulgarity, of diction, than 
extensions, contractions, and alterations, of words: for here 
the variation from the proper form, being unusual, will give 
elevation to the expression ; and at the same time, what is 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 241 

retained of usual speech will give it clearness. It is without 

reason, therefore, that some critics have censured these 

modes of speech, and ridiculed the poet for the use of 

them ; as old Euclid did, objecting, that " versification 

would be an easy business, if it were permitted to lengthen 

words at pleasure ;" and then giving a burlesque example 

of that sort of diction : as, 

# - ' ~" •#•■.•#''*■*..*•■•*" * 

#:.•_♦...*.■■#.** * *i 

Undoubtedly, when these licences appear to be thus pur- 
posely used, the thing becomes ridiculous. In the employ- 
ment of all the species of unusual words, moderation is ne- 
cessary : for metaphors, foreign words, or any of the others, 
improperly used, and with a design to be ridiculous, would 
produce the same effect. But how great a difference is made 
by a proper and temperate use of such words, may be seen 
in heroic verse. Let any one only substitute common words 
in the place of the metaphorical, the foreign, and others of 
the same kind, and he will be convinced of the truth of 
what I say. For example : the same iambic verse occurs 
in JEscliylus and in Euripides ; but by means of a single al- 
teration — the substitution of a foreign for a common and 
usual word, one of these verses appears beautiful, the other 
ordinary. For ^Eschylus, in his Philoctetes, says 

OayfScuvet, ?j juou aapKag toOiei nodog — 

The cank'rous wound that eats my flesh. 

But Euripides, instead of ladtu [eats] uses Qoivarai. 
The same difference will appear, if in this verse, 
NW de fi Iwv 6\iyog re Kat ovridavog kcii aKtKvg, 

1 The examples are omitted, on account of the great corruption of 
the text. 



242 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

we substitute common words, and say — 

Nw Se fx liov fiiKpog re kul auOeviKog nai dei^rig. 
So, again, should we for the following — 

Aitypov deuceXiov KciTaOcig, oXiyriv r£ Tpcnrt%av — 
substitute this — 

Ai<j)pov juLOx0r}pov KaraOeig, juiicpav re rpmr^av, 
Or change 'H'iovtg fioowmv — The cliffs rebellow — to 'Hiovcc 
KpaZovaiv — The cliffs resound. 

Ariphrades, also, endeavoured to throw ridicule upon the 
tragic poets, for making use of such expressions as no one 
would think of using in common speech : as, Swjuarwv diro 1 
instead of diro dwfianov : and aeOev, and eyw Se viv, and 
'A^XXcfejc 7T£jQ(, instead of irspi 'Ax'AAswe, &c. Now it is 
precisely owing to their being not in common use, that such 
expressions have the effect of giving elevation to the diction. 
But this he did not know. 

To employ with propriety any of these modes of speech — 
the double words, the foreign, &c. is a great excellence ; but 
the greatest of all is to be happy in the use of metaphor ; 
for it is this alone which cannot be acquired, and which, 
consisting in a quick discernment of resemblances, is a cer- 
tain mark of genius. 

I Of the different kinds of words the double are best suited 
to dithyrambic poetry, the foreign to heroic, the metaphorical 
to iambic. In heroic poetry, indeed, they have all their 
place ; but to iambic verse, which is, as much as may be, an 
imitation of common speech, those words which are used in 
common speech are best adapted ; and such are the common, 
the metaphorical, and the ornamental. 

Concerning Tragedy, and the imitation by action, enough 
has now been said. 

XXIII. — With respect to that species of poetry which 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 243 

imitates by narration, and in hexameter verse, it is obvious 
that the fable ought to be dramatically constructed, like 
that of Tragedy : and that it should have for its subject 
one entire and perfect action, having a beginning, a middle, 
and an end ; so that, forming, like an animal, a complete 
ivhole, it may afford its proper pleasure : widely differing, in 
its construction, from history, which necessarily treats, not 
of one action, but of one time, and of all the events that 
happened to one person, or to many, during that time ; 
events, the relation of which to each other is merely casual. 
For, as the naval action at Salamis, and the battle with the 
Carthaginians in Sicily, were events of the same time, un- 
connected by any relation to a common end or purpose ; so 
also, in successive events, we sometimes see one thing follow 
another, without being connected to it by such relation. 
And this is the practice of the generality of poets. Even 
in this, therefore, as we have before observed, the superior- 
ity of Homer's genius is apparent, that he did not attempt 
to bring the whole war, though an entire action with begin- 
ning and end, into his poem. It would have been too vast 
an object, and not easily comprehended in one mew : or, had 
he forced it into a moderate compass, it would have been 
perplexed by its variety. Instead of this, selecting one part 
only of the war, he has, from the rest, introduced many 
episodes— such as the catalogue of the ship>s, and others — > 
by which he has diversified his poem. Other poets take for 
their subject the actions of one person or of one period of 
time, or an action which, though one, is composed of too 
many parts. Thus the author of the Cypriacs, and of the 
Little Iliad. Hence it is, that the Iliad and the Odyssey 
each of them furnish matter for one tragedy, or two, at 
most ; but from the Cypriacs many may be taken, and from 



244 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

the Little Iliad more than eight ; as, The Contest for the 
Armour, Philoctetes, Neoptolemus, Eurypylus, The Va- 
grant, The Spartan Women, The Fall of Troy, The Re- 
turn of the Fleet, Sinon, and The Trojan Women. 

Again — the epic poem must also agree with the tragic, 
as to its kinds : it must be simple or complicated, moral or 
disastrous. Its parts also, setting aside music and decora- 
tion, are the same ; for it requires revolutions, discoveries, 
and disasters ; and it must be furnished with proper senti- 
ments and diction : of all which Homer gave both the first, 
and the most perfect example. Thus, of his two poems, the 
Iliad is of the simple and disastrous kind ; the Odyssey, com- 
plicated (for it abounds throughout with discoveries,) and 
moral. Add to this, that in language and sentiments he has 
surpassed all poets. 

The epic poem differs from tragedy, in the length of its 
plan, and in its metre. 

With respect to length, a sufficient measure has already 
been assigned. It should be such as to admit of our com- 
prehending at one view the beginning and the end : and this 
would be the case, if the epic poem were reduced from its 
ancient length, so as not to exceed that of such a number 
of tragedies, as are performed successively at one hearing. 
But there is a circumstance in the nature of epic poetry 
which affords it peculiar latitude in the extension of its 
plan. It is not in the power of tragedy to imitate several 
different actions performed at the same time ; it can imitate 
only that one which occupies the stage, and in which the ac- 
tors are employed. But the epic imitation, being narrative, 
admits of many such simultaneous incidents, properly related 
to the subject, which swell the poem to a considerable size. 
And this gives it a great advantage, both in point of mag- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 245 

nifcence, and also as it enables the poet to relieve his hearer, 
and diversify his work, by a variety of dissimilar episodes : 
for it is to the satiety naturally arising from similarity that 
tragedies frequently owe their ill success. 

With respect to metre, the heroic is established by expe- 
rience as the most proper ; so that, should any one compose 
a narrative poem in any other, or in a variety of metres, he 
would be thought guilty of a great impropriety. For the 
heroic is the gravest and most majestic of all measures ; 
and hence it is, that it peculiarly admits the use of foreign 
and metaphorical expressions ; for in this respect also, the 
narrative imitation is abundant and various beyond the rest. 
But the Iambic and Trochaic have more motion ; the latter 
being adapted to dance, the other to action and business. 
To mix these different metres, as Chwremon has done, would 
be still more absurd. No one, therefore, has ever attempted 
to compose a poem of an extended plan in any other than 
heroic verse ; nature itself, as we before observed, pointing 
out the proper choice. 

Among the many just claims of Homer to our praise, 
this is one — that he is the only poet who seems to have un- 
derstood what part in his poem it was proper for him to tak© 
himself The poet, in his own person, should speak as 
little as possible ; for he is not then the imitator. But 
other poets, ambitious to figure throughout themselves, imi- 
tate but little, and seldom. Homer, after a few preparatory 
lines, immediately introduces a man, a woman, or some other 
character ; for all have their character — no where are the 
manners neglected. 

The surprising is necessary in Tragedy ; but the epi« 
poem goes farther, and admits even the improbable and in- 
credible \ from which the highest degree of the surprising re- 



246 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

suits, because, there, the action is not seen. The circum- 
stances, for example, of the pursuit of Hector by Achilles, 
are such, as, upon the stage, would appear ridiculous ; — the 
Grecian army standing still, and taking no part in the pur- 
suit, and Achilles making signs to them, by the motion of 
his head, not to interfere. But in the epic poem this es- 
capes our notice. Now the wonderful always pleases ; as is 
evident from the additions which men always make in re- 
lating any thing, in order to gratify the hearers. 

It is from Homer principally that other poets have learned 
the art of feigning well. It consists in a sort of sophism. 
When one thing is observed to be constantly accompanied or 
followed by another, men are apt to conclude, that if the 
latter is, or has happened, the former must also be, or must 
have happened. But this is an error. * * * * For, know- 
ing the latter to be true, the mind is betrayed into the false 
inference, that the first is true also. 

The poet should prefer impossibilities which appear pro- 
bable, to such things as, though possible, appear improbable. 
Far from producing a plan made up of improbable inci- 
dents, he should, if possible, admit no one circumstance of 
that kind ; or, if he does, it should be exterior to the action 
itself, like the ignorance of (Edipus concerning the manner 
in which Laius died ; not within the drama, like the nar- 
rative of what happened at the Pythian games, in the 
Electra ; or, in The Mysians, the man who travels from 
Tegea to Mysia without speaking. To say, that without 
these circumstances the fable would have been destroyed, is 
a ridiculous excuse : the poet should take care, from the 
first, not to construct his fable in that manner. If, however, 
any thing of this kind has been admitted, and yet is made 
to pass under some colour of probability, it may be allowed, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 247 

though even in itself absurd. Thus, in the Odyssey, the im- 
probable account of the manner in which Ulysses was landed 
upon the shore of Ithaca is such as, in the hands of an ordi- 
nary poet, would evidently have been intolerable : but here 
the absurdity is concealed under the various beauties, of 
other kinds, with which the poet has embellished it. 

The diction should be most laboured in the idle parts of 
the poem— those in which neither manners nor sentiments 
prevail ; for the manners and the sentiments are only ob- 
scured by too splendid a diction. 

XXV. — With respect to critical objections, and the an- 
swers to them, the number and nature of the different sources 
from which they may be drawn will be clearly understood, 
if we consider them in the following manner. 

1. The poet, being an imitator, like the painter or any 
other artist of that kind, must necessarily, when he imi- 
tates, have in view one of these three objects : he must re- 
present things, such as they were, or are ; or such as they 
are said to be, and believed to be ; or such as they should be, 

2. Again — all this he is to express in ivords, either com- 
mon, or foreign and metaphorical — or varied by some of 
those many modifications and peculiarities of language which 
are the privilege of poets. 

3. To this we must add, that what is right in the poetic art, 
is a distinct consideration from what is right in the political, 
or any other art. The faults of poetry are of two kinds, 
essential and accidental. If the poet has undertaken to 
imitate without talents for imitation, his poetry will be es- 
sentially faulty. But if he is right in applying himself to 
poetic imitation, yet in imitating is occasionally wrong — as 
if a horse, for example, were represented moving both his 
right legs at once ; or, if he has committed mistakes, or 



248 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

described things impossible, with respect to other arts, that 
of physic, for instance, or any other — all such faults, what- 
ever they may be, are not essential, but accidental faults, in 
the poetry. 

To the foregoing considerations, then, we must have re- 
course, in order to obviate the doubts and objections of the 
critics. 

For, in the first place, suppose the poet to have repre- 
sented things impossible with respect to some other art ; this 
is certainly a fault. Yet it may be an excusable fault, pro- 
vided the end of the poefs art be more effectually obtained 
by it ; that is, according to what has already been said of 
that end, if by this means, that, or any other part of the 
poem is made to produce a more striking effect. The pur- 
suit of Hector is an instance. If, indeed, this end might 
as well, or nearly as well, have been attained, without de- 
parting from the principles of the particular art in question, 
the fault, in that case, could not be justified, since faults of 
every kind should, if possible, be avoided. 

Still we are to consider, farther, whether a fault be in 
things essential to the poetic art, or foreign and incidental 
to it : for it is a far more pardonable fault to be ignorant, 
for instance, that a hind has no horns, than to paint one 
badly. 

Farther — If it be objected to the poet, that he has not 
represented things conformably to truth, he may answer, 
that he has represented them as they should be. This was 
the answer of Sophocles — that " he drew mankind such as 
they should be ; Euripides, such as they are."' And this is 
the proper answer. 

But if the poet has represented things in neither of these 
ways, he may answer, that he has represented them as they 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 249 

are said and believed to be. Of this kind are the poetical 
descriptions of the gods. It cannot, perhaps, be said that 
they are either what is best, or what is true ; but, as Xeno- 
phanes says, opinions " taken up at random ;" these are 
things, however, not " clearly Mown" 

Again — What the poet has exhibited is, perhaps, not 
what is best, but it is the fact ; as in the passage about the 
arms of the sleeping soldiers : 

fixed upright in the earth 

Their spears stood by.. 

For such was the custom at that time, as it is now among 
the Illyrians. 

In order to judge whether what is said, or clone, by any 
character, be well or ill, we are not to consider that speech 
or action alone, whether in itself it be good or bad, but also 
by whom it is spoken or done, to whom, at what time, in 
what manner, or for what end — whether, for instance, in 
order to obtain some greater good, or to avoid some greater 
evil. 

For the solution of some objections, we must have re- 
course 1 . to the diction. — For example : 

Ovpriag p.ev irpwrov 

" On mules and dogs th* infection first began. — Pope. 
This may be defended by saying, that the poet has, perhaps, 
used the word ovpriag in its foreign acceptation of sentinels, 
not in its proper sense, of mules. 

So also in the passage where it is said of Dolon — 

EtSoe fjizv lr\v KaKog 

... Of form unhappy. ........ 

The meaning is, not, that his person was deformed, but, 
that his face was xigly ; for the Cretans use the word 
o;«$ec— « " well-formed"'— to express a beautiful face. 



250 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

Again— 

Zwporspov $£ KEpaips 

Here, the meaning is not, " mix it strong" as for intem- 
perate drinkers ; but, " mix it quickly" 

2. The following passages may be defended by metaphor — 
" Now pleasing sleep had seal'd each mortal eye ; 
" Stretch'd in the tents the Grecian leaders lie ; 
" TV immortals slumber* d on their thrones above." — Pope. 
Again — 

" When on the Trojan plain his anxious eye 

« Watchful hefix'd." 

And— 

Av\(jjv crvpiyyiovO' ofxadov ... 



For, all, is put metaphorically, instead of many; all being 
a species of many. Here also — < 

" The Bear alone, 

" Still shines exalted in th' ethereal plain, 

" Nor bathes his flaming forehead in the main."— Pope* 

Alone, is metaphorical : the most remarkable thing in any 
kind, we speak of as the only one. 
We may have recourse also, 

3. To accent: as the following passage— ■> 

AlBo/jlev $e ol £i»xoc apecrQai.,. 
And this — to fxev ov KarairvdzTai bixfipq — were defended 
by Hippias of Thasos. 

4. To punctuation ; as in the passage of Empedocles : — 

Atya Sc Ovr\T Icjivovro ra irpiv [xaOov aOavar tlvai, 

7uWpa re ra irpiv aK/)ijra 

things, before immortal, 

Mortal became, and mix*d before, unmixed. 

5. To ambiguity; as in — irap^^r\K^v & ttXswv vv% — 
where the word wXwv is ambiguous. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 251 

6. To customary speech : thus, wine mixed with water, or 
whatever is poured out to drink as wine, is called olvog — 
wine : hence, Ganymede is said — All oXvoxpzvuv — to " pour 
the wine^to Jove :" though wine is not the liquor of the 
Gods. This, however, may also be defended by metaphor. 

Thus, again, artificers in iron are called xaAicac, literally 
braziers. Of this kind is the expression of the poet — 

KvrjJLlig VtOTZVKTOV KaaCTLTtpOLO. 

7. When a word, in any passage, appears to express a 
contradiction, we must consider, in how many different senses 
it may there be taken. Here, for instance — 

... TTj p e<j%£To xoXkeov lyx°Q — 
" There stuck the lance." — Pope, 
the meaning is, was stopped only, or repelled. 

Of how many different senses a word is capable, may best 
be discovered by considering the different senses that are 
opposed to it. 

We may also say, with Glauco, that some critics, first 
take things for granted without foundation, and then argue 
from these previous decisions of their own ; and, having 
once pronounced their judgment, condemn, as an inconsist- 
ence, whatever is contrary to their preconceived opinion. 
Of this kind is the cavil of the critics concerning Icarius. 
Taking it for granted that he was a Lacedaemonian, they 
thence infer the absurdity of supposing Telemachus not to 
have seen him when he went to Lacedsemon. But, perhaps, 
what the Cephalenians say may be the truth. They assert, 
that the wife of Ulysses was of their country, and that the 
name of her father was not Icarius, but Icadius. The ob- 
jection itself, therefore, is probably founded on a mistake. 

The impossible, in general, is to be justified by referring, 
either to the end of poetry itself, or to what is best, or to 
opinion. 



252 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

For, with respect to poetry, impossibilities, rendered pro- 
vable, are preferable to things improbable, though possible. 

With respect also to what is best, the imitations of poetry 
should resemble the paintings of Zeuxis : the example 
should be more perfect than nature. 

To opinion, or what is commonly said to be, may be re- 
ferred even such things as are improbable and absurd ; and 
it may also be said, that events of that kind are, sometimes, 
not really improbable ,• since, "it is probable, that many 
things should happen contrary to probability." 

When things are said, which appear to be contradictory, 
we must examine them as we do in logical confutation : 
whether the same thing be spoken of ; whether in the same 
respect, and in the same sense. ****** 

Improbability, and vicious manners, when excused by no 
necessity, are just objects of critical censure. Such is the 
improbability in the JEgeus of Euripides, and the vicious 
character of Menelaus in his Orestes. 

Thus, the sources from which the critics draw their objec- 
tions are five : they object to things as impossible, or impro- 
bable, or of immoral tendency, or contradictory, or contrary 
to technical accuracy. The answers, which are twelve in 
number, may be deduced from what has been said. 

XXVI. — It may be inquired, farther, which of the two 
imitations, the epic, or the tragic, deserves the prefer- 
ence. 

If that, which is the least vulgar or popular of the two, 
be the best, and that be such, which is calculated for the 
better sort of spectators — the imitation, which extends to 
every circumstance, must, evidently, be the most vulgar, or 
popular ; for there, the imitators have recourse to every 
kind of motion and gesticulation, as if the audience, without 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 253 

the aid of action, were incapable of understanding them ; 
like bad flute-players, who whirl themselves round, when 
they would imitate the motion of the discus, and pull the 
Coryphaeus, when Scylla is the subject. Such is Tragedy. 
It may also be compared to what the modern actors are in 
the estimation of their predecessors ; for, Myniscus used to 
call Callippides, on account of his intemperate action, the 
ape: and Tyndarus was censured on the same account. 
What these performers are with respect to their predecessors, 
the tragic imitation, when entire, is to the epic. The latter, 
then, it is urged, addresses itself to hearers of the better 
sort, to whom the addition of gesture is superfluous ; but 
Tragedy is for the people ; and being therefore the most 
vulgar kind of imitation, is evidently the inferior. 

But now, in the first place, this censure falls, not upon 
the poefs art, but upon that of the actor ; for the gesticula- 
tion may be equally laboured in the recitation of an epic 
poem, as it was by Soslstratus ; and in singing, as by 
Mnasitheus the Opuntian. 

Again — All gesticulation is not to be condemned, since 
even all dancing is not ; but such only as is unbecoming- 
such as was objected to Callippides, and is now objected to 
others, whose gestures resemble those of immodest wo- 
men. 

Farther — Tragedy, as well as the epic, is capable of 
producing its effect, even without action ; we can judge of 
it perfectly by reading. If, then, in other respects, Tragedy 
be superior, it is sufficient that the fault here objected is not 
essential to it. 

Tragedy has the advantage in the following respects. It 
possesses all that is possessed by the epic ; it might even 
adopt its metre ; and to this it makes no inconsiderable 



254? THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

addition, in the music and the decoration ; by the latter of 
which, the illusion is heightened, and the pleasure, arising 
from the action, is rendered more sensible and striking. 

It has the advantage of greater clearness and distinctness 
of impression, as well in reading , as in representation. 

It has also that, of attaining the end of its imitation in 
a shorter compass : for the effect is more pleasurable, when 
produced by a short and close series of impressions, than 
when weakened by diffusion through a long extent of time ; 
as the (Edipus of Sophocles, for example, would be, if it 
were drawn out to the length of the Iliad. Farther : there 
is less unity in all epic imitation ; as appears from this — 
that any epic poem will furnish matter for several tragedies. 
For, supposing the poet to choose a fable strictly one, the 
consequence must be, either, that his poem, if proportion- 
ably contracted, will appear curtailed and defective, or, 
if extended to the usual length, will become weak, and, as 
it were, diluted. If, on the other hand, we suppose him to 
employ several fables — that is, a fable composed of several 
actions — his imitation is no longer strictly one. The Iliad, 
for example, and the Odyssey contain many such subordinate 
parts, each of which has a certain magnitude, and unity, 
of its own ; yet is the construction of those poems as per- 
fect, and as nearly approaching to the imitation of a single 
action, as possible. 

If, then, Tragedy be superior to the Epic in all these 
respects, and also in the peculiar end at which it aims (for, 
each species ought to afford, not any sort of pleasure in- 
discriminately, but such only as has been pointed out), it 
evidently follows, that Tragedy, as it attains more effec- 
tually the end of the art itself, must deserve the prefer- 
ence. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 255 

And thus much concerning tragic and epic poetry In 
general, and their several species — the number and the differ- 
ences of their parts — the causes of their beauties and their 
defects — the censures of critics, and the principles on which 
they are to be ansivered. 



CHAPTER VI. 



SECTION. I. 

Greek Prosody. 

1. A short or doubtful vowel before two consonants or a 
double letter, in the same or different words, is generally 
long. The exceptions to this rule take place when the lat- 
ter consonant is a liquid. In Epic Poetry, they occur only 
in proper names, and in those words, which could not be 
used in any other position. In Pastoral, Elegiac, and Epi- 
grammatic verse, the syllable is more frequently short. In 
Dramatic poetry, the following rules may be observed: 
A short vowel before a soft or aspirate mute followed by 
a liquid, and before a middle mute followed by /o, remains 
short. In Tragedy, the syllable, if not final, is often long, 
and it is, even then, long in Sophocles, CEd. Tyr. Iv ovdpaoi 

/3/507WV. 

A short vowel before a middle mute followed by A, /i, or v, 
lengthens the syllable in all Dramatic Poetry. The reason 
of this difference between Heroic and Dramatic Poetry 
may be this. In the grave, majestic cadence of Heroic 
verse, Spondees are frequent ; but the Iambs and Tribrachs 
of the language of the stage require short syllables. Hence 
the doubtful vowel in (pQavw, $0i'vw, rivu), &c. is long in 
Homer, and short in Iambic Metre. It is remarkable that 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 257 

the short syllable prevails, in proportion as the style ap- 
proaches to that of conversation. When the syllable is 
lengthened before two consonants, the vowel in pronuncia- 
tion assumes one or both of them, as tIk-vov, or, tekv-ov ; 
when the syllable remains short, the vowel concludes it, as 
t£-kvov. So in Latin the first syllable in Atlas, &c. is some- 
times short, because it is pronounced A-tlas. When the 
vowel is followed by two consonants, the latter of which is 
not a liquid, or by two liquids, the syllable is long in every 
species of poetry. Hence, if we find Se ^Ka/navdpov, irapa 
oraOfito, we must observe that KajuavSpov was the ancient 
form, and that some MSS. have Trap araO^iw. 

2. A short vowel is sometimes made long, in Heroic verse, 
before a single consonant, particularly before a liquid, and 
before p, which seem to have the property of doubling them- 
selves in pronunciation ; this principally occurs in the caesura, 
and may be accounted for by the ictus. A short syllable is 
often made long when the next word begins with a digam- 
mated vowel, as og ol, for Fo£. A short vowel is said some- 
times to be made long by the force of the accent : thus 
Homer has made the penultima in 'lAtou long. In other 
instances, perhaps, the same cause has shortened a long 
syllable, as tug tytb tte/k, where the last syllable in iug seems 
to be short on account of the elevation of the voice on the 
first, although that elevation does not naturally lengthen 
the syllable. 

3. When three short syllables come together, it is ne- 
cessary for the sake of the measure in Heroic verse, that 
one* should be made long, as Ufnafii^g. Thus Qv is short 
in Svyarrip, and long in Svyaripeg ; so also though A priva-' 

* Generally the first, and that too in the metrical arsis. 

s 



258 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

tive is generally short, it is lengthened in some words of 
more than three syllables: as, aOavarog. 

4. A vowel is made short before another, but not neces- 
sarily, as among the Latins, if the vowel is doubtful : as, 

5. A vowel before another does not suffer elision, as in 
Latin, at the end of a word, unless an apostrophe is substi- 
tuted. The vowels cut off by apostrophe are a, e , i, o, and 
the diphthongs at and m ; but irepl and trpo never, and da- 
tives of the third declension, and }io\ and <joi, seldom, lose 
their final vowel. The elision of diphthongs takes place in 
verbs only : instances of this are to be found only in the 
fragments of the new Comedy. 

6. A long vowel, or a diphthong, is generally shortened 
at the end, and sometimes at the beginning, of a word, 
before a vowel ; as oucoj ev, irotu, so also in Latin, Pelio 
Ossam, servant te amice, Virg. Si me amas, Hor. The 
long vowel or diphthong may be considered as consisting of 
two short vowels. If the latter is supposed to suffer elision, 
the former will of course remain short ; as, otW lv. If the 
final vowel or diphthong has the arsis, it remains long. The 
Greek Dramatic* writers never admit in Iambic and Tro- 
chaic metres the hiatus, occasioned by a vowel or diphthong 
at the end of one word being shortened before the com- 
mencing vowel of the next ; except in exclamations ; as, 
w ovTog ; Epic writers admit the hiatus occasioned by a 
long vowel before another in arsis as well as in thesis, also 
in those words which do not admit of elision, as tl tariv, 
under which head may be classed genitives ending in ao and 
oio. The Roman Poets, to whose language the apostrophe 

* The ancient Greek Epic Poets appear to make hiatuses oftener 
than they really do, because they used the digamma. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 259 

is unknown, approve of the hiatus in scarcely any besides 
long syllables, and even those long syllables are open in dac- 
tylic numbers only : necessarily, when a short syllable fol- 
lows, so that synizesis cannot take place, as, " Lamentis 
gemituque et ftemineo ululatu :" not necessarily, when the 
following syllable, being long, allows of synizesis, as, " Ne- 
reidum matri et Neptuno iEgeo," or where, when a long 
syllable follows, the open syllable is made short, as, " Insulse 
Ionio in mag-no." A hiatus in a short syllable is very rare ; 
nor is it excusable, except where the punctuation occasions 
a pause, as in Virgil. Mn. 1, 405. Eel. 2, 53. 

7. A syllable formed by contraction or crasis, is long ; as, 
6<j)i£s, ocflg. Crasis, used principally by Attic writers, is 
made by those, or nearly those words only, which coalesce 
in the sense also, as one notion or idea, whence the most 
frequent crasis is in the article and noun, as, 'avrip, rovpyov, 
also in some particles, as, tg.v, for rot av. It is more un- 
usual in a pronoun and verb, as, a'^w from a t^w. It is to 
be understood in general, that the long vowels a, 17, w, easily 
dissolve in crasis with a short initial one, which is almost 
only £; as does the diphthong ov, which appears to be 
nothing but a substitute for a vowel which wanted a proper 
character among the Greeks. Kcu makes a crasis with all 
vowels and diphthongs : seldom, however, with i, and Por- 
son observes, that it is not united with ast, or with bv, ex- 
cept in compound words. 

8. Two successive vowels, forming two syllables, even in 
different words, frequently coalesce in poetry ; thus Szoq 
becomes a monosyllable, \pvai(jj a dissyllable, 1) ovk are pro- 
nounced as one syllable; this union, which is called Synizesis, or 
Synecphonesis, is most used in genitives ending inswg and £wv, 
as 7rd\£we, noXz (x) v. In epic poetry, the two vowels pronounced 



260 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

together are even made short before another vowel following, 
but scarcely any where except in the second syllable of a 
dactyl : as, SivSpeoj tyt^o^voi. The correption of two 
short vowels conjoined by synecphonesis is very uncommon; 
Pindar, however, appears to have made Oebg, as a monosyl- 
lable, short. A synecphonesis of the letter v with another 
vowel following it is rather uncommon, although used in 
datives, as vitcvi. Of l too and a following vowel the synec- 
phonesis is rare : as tcapSiag. so in Latin, abietibus ; the 
synecphonesis in the i of the dative singular of the third 
declension is remarkable : as that letter cannot be there 
elided, it is pronounced together with a following vowel : as, 
ctGTspi dirtvpivqj zvuXiyiaov. That synecphonesis cannot take 
place in datives plural is apparent from their assuming the 
v tyaXicvaTiicbv before a vowel : and the i in those datives 
cannot be elided in the Attic dialect. 

9. "With the ancient Epic Poets the accent had great 
power both in lengthening syllables on which it was placed, 
and in shortening those which it either followed or pre- 
ceded ; as, AioAou, STrtu), aydptbfisv, e&c o rav9\ (as stated 
before.) 

10. The Caesura, and the Arsis, or elevation of the voice, 
otherwise called the metrical Ictus, have the effect of length- 
ening short syllables. 

11. Punctuation, since it requires a stop and pause of 
the voice, occasions sometimes a short final syllable in cer- 
tain kinds of verses, as dochmiac, to be made long. This 
takes place chiefly after compellation or address, exclama- 
tion, and interrogation : and that too among the Roman 
dramatic writers even in Trochaic numbers. Punctuation 
also serves in some places to excuse hiatus. 

12. Words compounded and derived follow the quantity 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 261 

of their primitives ; as, aTljuog from rlfirj. 'Apt, lpi> fdpi^dvg^a, 
are short in composition. 

llav in the beginning of compound words is short : as, 
irava\aiu)v ; vjg, avg, and irvp are short in composition : as, 
ovfid)Tr]g ; A privative is generally short. 

13. The Doric a for rj or ov is long; the iEolic a is short; 
as, vvficpa <pi\ii ; A is long before pa in verbals derived from 
the first person of the perfect passive : as, opapa ; nouns in 
atov lengthen the penultima ; as, M.a\cm)v : neuters in avov 
shorten it ; as, Spin avov : A is long in most proper names 
in arrjg and ang : as, Evfpan-jg ; also in some proper names 
of tbe feminine gender in aig ; as, N ciig ; but masculines 
have the penult, short, as, Tavaig ; it is long in numerals : 
as, rpLCLKoaiog : short in patronymics in adrjg, as ririXrjmS^c ; 
also in adverbs in aKig and am : as, TroXXamg : also in dimi- 
nutives in adtov, amov : apiov, anov, as, dopaTiov, except 
those from long primitives : as, Oojpamov. 

14. Patronymics and other nouns in ivt] are generally 
long: as, Nijptvij, SojTlvr), except aAa7nvrj, and fern. adj. 
from masculines in wog, as Kspdtvrj. Also nouns in trr]g and 
trig, as, TroXlrrig, TroXirig, except some verbals, as, Kptrrig. I 
is generally short in diminutives in tov and tStov, as, KovptBiov, 
except ljuiaT~idiov, apyvp'iBiov, &c. The latter are formed 
from the diminutives i/idnov , apyvpiov, and are by Attic 
crasis for Ipariidtov, &c. It is short also in adjectives in 
ivoc • as, dvOpiLmvog, &c. except bpOplvog, b-rrbyplvog^ which 
however are also found with the penult short. Also in de- 
rivatives in iaig and trog : as, Kpivig, a^OXrog, &c. in wog 
and Xpog : as, -n-paKTiKog^ voaiXpog, &c. also in patronymics 
in ?dr}g: as, Ntaro/oTSTjc, &c. diminutives in tdevg, as, AvmSevg; 
in i\og ; as, vavrXXog, &c. Comparatives in iwv are short 
in Homer, long in Attic writers. Nouns in twi>, increasing 



262 THE GllECIAN DRAMA. 

short in the genitive, lengthen the penult, as 'Apcjnwv, &c. 
increasing long, shorten it : as, AwkoXlwv ; the penult, is 
common in Kpoviuv, 'Qpiwv. 

15. The penult, of verbals in vmg is short; as, \vcrig ; 
also of polysyllable nouns in vvq, and of some in urrje, as, 
yriQoavvri, (3pa§vTv,g : also of diminutives in vXop, as, [iikkv- 
\og : in most adj. in yvog and vpog ; as, 7T£<twoc, jdXoavpog, 
&c. except tcr^vjooc, &c. — Y is long in verbals ending in 
vfia, v/mog, vrr)p, vrtop ; as, \vpa : generally also in vrog, 
vrijc, and vrig ; as, Trpe(rj3vrr]g, except some derived from 
preterites, as, Xvrbg, ^vrbg, Ovrbg, (j)VTog, &c. and their 
compounds. 

16. Penultima of tenses of verbs. Verbs in «vw have 
the penult, of the present short ; except Uavto and K£)(avw. 
Verbs in tw generally have the penult, of the present long. 
Verbs in tvw, as <p9ivto, have the penult, of the present long 
in Homer, short in the Attic tragic writers. Verbs in 
vvw, vpoj, and v^w, generally have the penult, of the pre- 
sent long ; as, lOvvio : but verbs derived from the futures of 
these are short ; as, kv/oIw. The reduplication of verbs in 
pi is short ; as, Sidwpi. Y is short in polysyllable verbs in 
vfii ; except in the singular of the present active, and the 
third person plural ; as, %>zvyvvpi, Zzvyvvai ; but in dis- 
syllables it is long throughout ; as, SvQi, eSu7w. Verbs of 
the fourth conjugation, particularly those in vco and pw, 
have the doubtful vowel before the liquid generally long in 
the presents and imperfects, and in the first aorists active 
and middle, and short in the futures and second aorists. 
The quantity of all tenses generally remains the same as in 
the tense, from which they are formed ; as, Kplvo), eiepivov, 
k/)Tvw, KUpiKa. If the first future is long by position only, 
the penultima of the perfect is short, as, ypaipw, y£ypa<pa. 



THE GRECIAN DEAMA. 263 

The perfect middle generally follows the quantity of the 
second aorist, as, hvirov, rkvira ; but some retain the long 
vowel of the present ; as, irzirpaya, KtKpaya, Ketcp'tya, rir- 
piya, epplya, fiefipWa, irty plica, fiiiwKa, &c. In the Attic 
reduplication the penultima is short, as, bpwpv\a. The 
doubtful vowels before m are always long, as, rtrv^acrf, 
TzOvavi, Sukvvgi. In the first aorist participle, aaa is long, 
as, Tv\pa(ra. In the first future, a, *, and u, followed by o-w, 
are short, as, yeXau, ygXao-w, vojuiJw, vo/uucrb) ; but acru) is 
long from verbs in aw preceded by a vowel, or in paw, as, 
OeacTU), Spacru) ; htio and uctw are long from verbs in w pure, 
as, Tio), rlcrw ; but short in civvgoj, j3Xucrw, kvgu), iitOvGb), 

JLLIKTO), TTTVGW, TCiVVGbi. 

1 7. Penultima of nouns and adjectives increasing in the 
genitive. A is short, as, atoparog ; except in nouns in av, 
avog, as, tltciv, TLTavog, (except TaXavoq and peXavog.) 
The Doric genitive, as, ArpelSao, povaawv ; and the follow- 
ing words, Ktpag, Kpag, <j)p£ap, i//ap, |3Xa£, Of>a£, %wpa%„ 
Hpal$, KOjoSa£, TTacrcra^, pa^, GTopfya^, ovp<pa%, (pivat,, (popra^ 
Kvo'SaS, and all in a£ pure, as, ota£. Homer makes the 
penult, of Ktparog short, the Attic writers long. So also 
he makes the a in KaXog long ; the Attic and Doric poets 
short. I is short, as, epig, zpXSog ; except in words of two 
terminations, as, StX^iv, StXfig, ^eXtylvog. Monosyllables, 
as, £i£, SJvbg ; but A\g, 3/)!$, (rri£, r\g, Xi\p, v\\p, are short. 
Nouns making tOog, as, oping, opvlOog, and those making 
tSoc, if their penult, is long, as, Kvnpig, Kvnpidog ; also 
nouns in *£, iyog or iicoe, as, pacm^ tyolviZ, ; and sometimes 
nouns in m, i?? 3 as, alicTa, viTzpoTrXir\, &c. Y is short, as, 
7rvp, 7ru/3oc ; except in words of two terminations, as, tyopKw 
and (popKvg, with j3oa/3u£, 71)1//, k///)u£, §oi§u£, kokjcu^, and 
7^ii?//. Thus, a doubtful vowel, in the last syllable of the 



264 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

nominative, generally retains its quantity in the penult, of 
the other cases ; as, yiyag, yiyavi ; aifJlg, ~i$og, 7<rt, &c. 
The doubtful vowels before m are long in the dative plural, 
when the dative singular is long by position, as, rv-tyaai. 

18. Quantity of the last syllable. A, I, Y, final are short; 
as, rirvcjta, tiOyhju, SaKpv : but words in Sa, pa, 0a, and a 
pure, have the a long, with the following exceptions, rjXiQa, 
ayicvpa, aKav6a, KtpKvpa, y((pvpa, oXvpa, (iKoXoTrevdpa, 
o(pvpa, Tavaypa ; compounds of fierpio, as, yeoj^iirpa ; pa 
preceded by a dipthong, as, fiolpa, (except avpa, \avpa, 
wXevpa, aavpa ;) verbals in Tpia, as, ipa\Tpia ; derivatives 
from adjectives in r?c, as, a\i)0eia ; 8ia, ttotvio., 'la, juta, 
Upzia, ayysXitia, K(£§£(a, vcnreia, ($am\zia. Duals of the 
first declension have the a long, as, fdovva ; also oxytons of 
the first declension, as, x a P a '■> accusatives in a from nouns 
in cue, generally in the Attic dialect ; vocatives from proper 
names in ag, as, riaXXa ; the Doric a, as, iraya for ir-qyrj ; 
but the iEolic a is short, and hence the Latin nominative 
in a is short ; the word evXana has the a long. The names 
of the letters have i long, as, £7, 7r7, as also the word Kpl ; 
contracted words, as, ^ri for ^ru ; the Attic paragoge, as, 
ravT~L, ovToai, except the dative plural, as, golgl. The 
imperfect, second aorist, and imperative of verbs in v/u, 
have v long, as, e<j>v, ojlivv ; vocatives from vg, as, p.v ; the 
names of letters, as, jxv, with ypv ; avriKpv is generally 
lengthened by the arsis. 

19. AN, IN, YN final are short, with the following excep- 
tions — Av long : words circumflexed, as wav. Oxytons 
masculine, as Ttrav. These adverbs, ayav, zvav, Xiav, 
iTEpav. The accusative of the first declension, whose nomi- 
native is long, as, (piXiav. \v long : words of two termina- 
tions, as, dz\<j)lv and dzX<fig ; vf-dv and vfxTv, when circum- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 265 

flexed on the last ; tiv, Doric for col ; kovlv, irpiv is some- 
times long in Homer ; nouns in iv, ivog, as, py\yniv. Yv 
long: words of two terminations, as, <j>6pKw, and <popKvg ; 
accusatives from vg long, as, otypvv; the imperfect and 
second laorist of verbs in vp.i, as, kdeUvvv ; together with 
livv and vvv ; but when vvv is an enclitic, it is generally 
short, as, roi vvv. 

20. AP, YP final are short, except Kap, xpap, <j>p(ap, try p. 

21. AS, IS, YS final are short : except Ac long; nomi- 
natives of participles, as rirfiag ; all cases of the first de- 
clension, as Taftlac, povaag, (but the Doric accusative is 
short, as vvfji(j)ag ;) plural accusatives in ag, from the long a 
in the accusative singular of nouns in zvg, as liriT^ag ; nouns 
in ac, avTog, as A'tag ; with piXag and roXa^. Ic long: 
words of two terminations, as, ScA$ie and dtX^iv ; hyper- 
dissyllables, with two short syllables before the last, as, 
KaXafTig ; nouns in ig increasing long, as, Kvrifiig ; with kic, 
Kiog ; opvig, which makes opviog and opvlOog, has the 
termination common. Yg long: words of two termina- 
tions, as, (popKvg and <j>opKvv ; monosyllables, as, pvg ; with 
Ku)p.vg ; oxytons making the genitive in og pure, as, wXriOvg, 
but these are sometimes short ; imperfects, second aorists, 
and participles of verbs in vp.i, as, t(pvg, Zsvyvvg. 



266 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



SECTION II. 

Greek Metres. 

1. A long syllable consists of two times ; two short syl- 
lables are considered equal to one long. 

2. Metre, in its most extensive sense, means an arrange- 
ment of syllables and feet in verse, according to certain 
rules ; and applies not only to an entire verse, but to part 
of a verse, or any number of verses. But a metre, in a 
specific sense, means either a foot, or the union of two 
feet ; it is applied to two feet, because the person who beat 
time during the dramatic recitations raised his foot but 
once for each pair-of feet pronounced. 

Rhythm respects the time only, and is a general name 
expressing the proportion that subsists between the parts 
of time employed in the pronunciation of different feet ; 
the least division of which is that which is employed in the 
pronunciation of a short syllable. This is Quinctilian's 
sense. The term is sometimes used in a more compre- 
hensive sense, and is synonymous with harmony. Metre 
respects both the time and order of the syllables. The 
Rhythm of a Dactyl and Anapaest is the same, the Metre 
different. The distinction is similar to that of Combina- 
tions and Permutations in Arithmetic. 

3. A foot consists of two or more syllables, connected 
and arranged according to established rules, and forming 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



267 



part of a verse. A verse* is a certain number of connected 
feet, forming a line of poetry ; it is derived from "Vertere," 
because at the close of each line, the reader necessarily 
turns to the beginning of another. Scanning-f- is the di- 
viding of a verse into the feet of which it is composed, and 
the assigning of their proper quantity to the constituent 
syllables in each foot. A certain number of connected 
syllables is called a foot, because by the aid of these feet, 
the voice steps along through the verse in a measured pace. 
The metaphor is taken from dancing, which by Simonides 
was called silent poetry, and poetry speaking dance ; a 
poetical foot has also been compared to a bar in music. 

4. Table of Feet. 



Pyrrich 

Iambus 

Trochee 

Tribrach 

Spondee 

Anapaest 

Dactyl - 

Amphibrachys 

Proceleusmaticus 

Cretic or Amphimacer 

Bacchius 

Antibacchius - 

1st Peeon 

2nd Peeon 

3rd Pa?on 

4th Pason 



\ Two times i From the p y rrhic dance— a lively 

/ i wo times, | m0V e m ent . . V v* 

"*\ /-From \dnru, to abuse. Archilocus 

used it in satire - . w 

!► Three times i From T P fc 'x e ' v > to run — ' 
f inret, nines, < rhnri>11 fr .„ ta lls _ in 



J 



1 



also called 
Choree, from its use in the chorus 



■f 



So called from its quantity - kj \j \j 

| Because used \v roug a-novbatg - - - 

From avairaieiv, being struck con- 
trary to the dactyl - - wy " 

Four times, «* From SdnrvXos, a finger - - v v 

Also called Scolius, from its use in _ 

Scolia or catches - - " 

From TrpoKeXeuoTidjthe word of com- 
. mand - 
Because invented or used by the _ _ 

Cretans - - - "" 

UsedinDithyrambic Hymns, in ho- _ _ 

nor of Bacchus - - 

Or Palimbacchius, the converse of 

the Bacchius 



> Five times, 



So called from their use in the Pas- 
onic Hymns. 



- - k.' 

— \j v \j 

\j \j \j - 



* The Greek term for verse is ari^o^, a rank, or row, on account of 
the arrangement of the words; hence V'<""'X' 0V > a hemistich, or half a 
verse, and SsVn^ov, a distich, &c, 

f From " Scandere," to climb. 



268 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



Molossus • 


- 






Choriambus - 


- 






Antispast 


- 






Ionic a Majore 


- 




► Six times, 


Ionic a Minore 


- 




Diiambus 


- 






Ditrochasus - 


- 


d 




1st Epitrit 


- 


1 


2nd Epitrit 
3rd Epitrit 


: 


y Seven times, 
| 


4th Epitrit 


- 


J 


Dispondeus 


» 




Eight times, 



From the Molossi, who used it - •- — — 

Compounded of a choree and an 
iambus - _ - — \s \j — 

From drawing opposite to a Cho- 
riambus - . - \s - — \j 

The favorite foot of the lonians 

Ditto 
The Iambic Syzygy 



\J Vj» - - 

w - u- 



The Trochaic Syzygy - 



— \j 



r v^ - 

f The Epitrits are so called because 

J they have three long syllables, and "~ w 

| -rpiTov a thiid short one, knl in _ _ 

I addition. 



Two Spondees - - - - - - - 

5. Though it might be supposed, that all feet in which 
the number of times is equal, are isochronous, and therefore 
capable of being used for each other, yet it is not so ; an 
Iambus, for instance, cannot be substituted for a Trochee. 
Those feet only are considered isochronous, in which the 
isochronism is similarly posited. Thus- 1 — 



_ 


„ 


\J 


_ 


«. 
















are 


v^ 


- 


- are 










isochronous ; 


=_ 


\J \J - 


v not 


\J\J 


\J\J 


yj 


\j\j 


- 









6. Verses are termed Monometer, Dimeter, Trimeter, 
&c. as they consist respectively of one, two, or thre 
metres. In Anapaestic, Iambic, and Trochaic verse, a 
metre consists of two feet ; in other species of verse, one 
foot constitutes a metre. In Anapaestic, Iambic, and 
Trochaic verse therefore, a Monometer contains two feet, - 
a Dimeter four feet, &c. ; in the other species, a Mono- 
meter contains only one foot, a Dimeter two, &c. As a 
general rule, it may be said, that when the predominant 
foot (the foot from which the metre derives its name,) 
consists of four times, we scan either with or without 



THE GEECIAN DRAMA. 269 

Dipodise ; (thus Dactylics are scanned without, Anapsestics 
with Dipodise ;) if of less than four times, always with 
Dipodise ; if of more, always without them. Thus Iambics 
and Trochaics always with Dipodise, but Choriambics, 
Antispastics, &c. always without them. 

7. A Metre, in its signification of two feet, is otherwise 
called Syzygy (<7u£uym), or Dipodia. By some, the term 
Syzygy is applied to the combination of two simple but 
unequal feet, as a Trochee and Iambus ; the term Dipodia 
to the combination of two simple and equal feet, as two 
Iambi ; it is then otherwise called Tautopodia : most usually, 
however, the combination of two disyllabic feet is called a 
Dipodia, and that of two trisyllabic, or of a disyllabic and 
trisyllabic, a Syzygy. 

8. The metrical Ictus, occurring twice in each Dipodia, 
seems to have struck the ear in pairs, being more strongly 
marked in the one place than in the other. Accordingly, 
each pair was once marked by the percussion of the musi- 
cian^ foot : " Pede ter percusso" is Horace's phrase when 
speaking of the Iambic Trimeter. 

9. Verses are denominated Acatalectic, Catalectic, Bra- 
chycatalectic, Hypercatalectic or Hypermeter, and Acepha- 
lous.* 

An Acatalectic verse, derived from a priv. and KaraA/jysiv, 
to cease or stop, is one which contains its exact number of 
feet and syllables. 

A Catalectic verse, derived from tcaTaXyiyuv, to cease, is 
one which is deficient by a syllable, or in some cases by 

* Thus the complete name of every verse necessarily consists of 
three terms — the first referring- to the species, the second to the num- 
ber of metres, the third to the apothesis or ending i for instance, an 
Iambic Trimeter Acatalectic. 



270 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



two. Thus in Dactylics, a verse ending with a Trochee 
would be termed Oatalectic on a disyllable, and if it wanted 
two syllables, it would be Oatalectic on one syllable. It is 
a general law of Catalectics, that the foot before the 
Oatalectic syllable should be pure, i. e. be the foot from 
which the metre is named. The last metre of a Oatalectic 
verse, especially in Trochaics and Iambics, is called Kara- 
k\uq. 

A Brachycatalectic verse, from fipaxvg, short, and 
KaraXrjyuv, is a verse which is deficient by a whole foot. 

An Hypercatalectic, (from virsp and KaraArryav), or 
Hypermeter, (from vtrep and julrpov, a measure,) is a verse 
which is redundant either by a syllable or an entire foot. 

An Acephalous verse, (from a priv. and KrfaXrj, a head,) 
is a verse which wants a syllable or more at the beginning. 

10. A part of a verse in which the metres are complete, 
or which consists of entire syzygies, is called ku\ov ; that 
in which they are incomplete, or which does not consist of 
entire syzygies, is called KOfifia. 

11. A composition in verse, which consists of only one 
kind of metre, is called by grammarians, carmen /jlovoku)- 
Xov, (from fiovog, solus, and k£Xov, membrum ;) if it 
contain two kinds of metre, it is termed SIkwXov ; if three, 
TpUojXov ; if four, TtrpaiuvXov. So again, if it consist of 
independent verses, which form no stanza, it is called 
fiovooTpofyov, (juovoc, and (rrpo^?), versus;) if it consist of 
stanzas, containing each two verses, it is termed diarpocpov ; 
if of stanzas of three verses, Tpiarpofyov ; if of stanzas of 
four verses, TtrpaaTpofyov. 

12. Where a verse of a given species consists of two feet 
and a half, it is called a penthemimer, as consisting of five 
half-feet; if of three feet and a half, a faptfomimer, as consist- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 271 

ing of seven half-feet ; if of one whole metre and a half, it 
is called hemiholius, as being the half of a whole Trimeter. 

IS. Caesura, called by the Greeks rofii], signifies either a 
division in the feet of a verse, whereby a foot is divided 
between two words, or a division in a line, by which a line 
is divided into two commas or colons. Of the former, 
there are three species, viz. the syllabic,* in which the first 
part of the divided foot consists of the last syllable of a 
word; the trochaic, in which the first part of the divided 
foot consists of a trochee, either part of a word, or an 
entire word ; and the monosyllabic, in which the first sylla- 
ble of the divided foot is a monosyllable. Of the latter 
there are four species, viz. the triemimeral, occurring at the 
third half foot ; the penihcruimeral, at the fifth ; the hejpthe- 
•rainier al, at the seventh ; and the ennemimeral, at the ninth 
half foot, 

14. Synapheia signifies such a connexion between verses, 
that the last syllable cannot be considered common, i. e. 
that a short final syllable cannot be considered as long, nor 
a long one as short. This connexion likewise does not allow 
an hiatus between two vowels, one of the vowels being at 
the end of one line, and the other at the commencement of 
the subsequent. The most remarkable instances of such a 
connexion are Anapsestics and Ionics a ruinore, but as a 
general rule it may be laid down, that it occurs in all 
Dimeters. 

15. A stronger notation, or marking of some one time, is 
called the Ictus. According to Bentley and Hermann, that 
time in which the Ictus is, is called the arsis, and those 
times which are without the ictus, the thesis, also the debilis 

* The syllabic csesura is also called masculine, and the trochaic 
feminine. 



272 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

jpositio ; because in those syllables at which the musician 
struck the ground with his foot, the actor elevated his voice. 
Foster, and some others, deducing the terms from the fall 
and rise of the foot or hand, call that thesis which Bentley 
calls arsis, and that arsis which he calls thesis. Hare 
thinks that the Ictus is the measurement by the motion of 
the finger or foot of the whole time, which is occupied in 
pronouncing an entire foot, and that the arsis and thesis 
are the two parts of the Ictus. Bentley's opinion is to be 
preferred. According to Dawes, in Iambic metres, the 
Ictus falls on the last syllable of the Iambus, Spondee, and 
Anapaest, and on the middle of the Tribrach and Dactyl — 
in Trochaic metres, on the first syllable of each foot — in 
Anapaestic metres, on the last of the Anapaest and Spondee, 
and on the penultima of the Dactyl, and the Proceleus- 
maticus. Dunbar places the Ictus, in Iambic verse, on the 
last of an Iambus, Spondee, and Anapaest, on the first of a 
Dactyl, and not any on the Tribrach. In Trochaic verse, 
on the first of a Trochee, Spondee, and Dactyl, and the 
last of an Anapaest. In Anapaestic verse, on the last of an 
Anapaest, and on the first of a Spondee and Dactyl. 
Dunbar thinks that Dawes confounded the Ictus and the 
Accent, two things totally distinct. He says the Tribrach 
can have no Ictus or lengthened tone on any one of its sylla- 
bles, nor the Dactyl and Anapaest on any of their short 
syllables. The Anapaestic verse so nearly resembles the 
Hexameter, that with the exception of the Anapaest itself, 
it requires the lengthened tone on the first, both of a Spon- 
dee and Dactyl, as in the Hexameter. 

The Anacrusis is that part of the series which is neither 
arsis nor thesis, but is independent of the ictus, preceding 
and introducing it. This term is borrowed from the 



THE GRECIAN- DRAMA. 273 

ancient music, it is derived from avcucpovio, " canendi initimn 
facere," and expresses very well the idea assigned to it of a 
prelude time, that which is antecedent to the regularly 
ictuated series, as the introductory chant was to the regular 
harmony. It has the nature of a thesis. 

16. Metre, as "an arrangement of feet and syllables 
according to certain laws," differs (as was observed in sect. 
2.) from rhythm in this, that it refers to both time and 
order, whilst rhythm refers merely to time. There are 
nine principal species of metre, *deriving their names from 
the predominant foot in each, viz. Iambic, Trochaic, Ana- 
psestic, Dactylic, Choriambic, Antispastic, Ionic a majore, 
Ionic a minore, Pseonic. There are also Cretics, Bac- 
chiacs, &c. &c. 

1 7. Iambic Metre. 

The most noted of Iambic verse is the Trimeter Acata- 
lectic, which the Latins call Senarius. Grammarians men- 
tion four forms of it : Pure Iambic, in which all the feet 
are Iambi ; Tragic, remarkable for the alternate spondees ; 
Comic, full of trisyllabic feet ; Satiric, between the Tragic 
and the Comic. The old writers, Archilochus, Solon, 
Simomdes, &c. wrote in pure Iambic. The tragic writers, 
from the necessity of lessening the labor of composing 
under such restrictions, introduced certain licenses; first, 
the admission of a spondee into the uneven places; 

* The causes which have given rise to other names, instead of the 
proper name of the species, are chiefly three : 1. The invention or 
frequent use of any species by a particular poet, in which case it is 
called after his name, as Glyconic after Glycon, Sotadic after Sotades ; 
2. Its being used in some particular civil or religious ceremony, as the 
Versus Prosodiacus ; 3. Its having been appropriated to some parti- 
cular subject or sentiment, as the Versus Paroemiacus. 

T 



274 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

secondly, the substitution of a tribrach for an iambus in the 
first, second, third, fourth, and fifth feet ; thirdly, the reso- 
lution of the spondee in the first foot into a dactyl or 
anapaest, in the third into a dactyl only, but in the fifth 
into neither. Thus a tragic senarius admits an iambus 
into any place except the sixth ; a spondee into the first, 
third, and fifth ; a dactyl into the first and third ; and an 
anapsest into the first alone, except in the case of proper 
names, when an anapsest is admissible into any of the first 
five feet. The anapsest in the first foot, in the more an- 
cient tragedy, to the time of the 89th Olympiad, could not 
consist of ^several words, nor be produced by the augment 
in verbs ; afterwards it might ; and up to the same time 
an anapaest was admitted in those proper names only, 
which it was impossible otherwise to adapt to the verse ; 
after that Olympiad, it was admitted even in those names, 
which by a different collocation, or a different orthography, 
might have been brought into the verse, without the neces- 
sity of an anapaest. The restriction of the anapsest to the 
first foot applies to the choric, as well as to the diverbial 
trimeters. The initial anapsest of the trimeter is hardly 
perceptible in its effect on the verse ; in shorter iambic 
verses it produces a livelier movement. The initial ana- 
psest should be comprehended in one word, except where 
the line begins either with an article, or with a preposition, 
followed immediately by its case. The anapsest of the 
proper name should also be comprised in one word. 
Elmsley considers that the names of places similarly formed 

* The reason of this is given by Hermann : it would argue much 
unskil fulness on the part of the poet not to be able so to distribute 
these words as to avoid the anapaest. He, contrary to Porson's canon, 
holds that the augment was omitted, and thus an iambus formed. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



275 



had the same license as proper names, but is doubtful with 
respect to patronymics. He has also observed that the 
plays of ^Eschylus afford' only one instance of the anapaest 
of the proper name. In two cases he introduced a proper 
name by substituting a choriambus for the first dipodia, 
but these passages have been corrected by Blomfield. The 
following is a 

Scale of the Iambic Trimeter Acataleciic. 



1 


2 


o 
P3 


r 


4 


5 


6 


\J — 


\j - 


\J 


- 


\j 


- 


\j — 


\j — 


\S \J v-/ 


\j \J \j 


\J 


w \J 


KJ 


\J V 


\j \J \J 


\j - 






- 


- 








\j — 


- w 




- 


\J \J 








vy — 


\J _ - 














\j - 


V - - 


^- 


\J 


\J - 


\J 


V - 


\J \j ■= 


\j -= 



Proper 

Name. 



18. The process by which Porson infers the inadmissi- 
bility of an anapaest beyond the first foot is this : If true 
with respect to the third, it must be so with respect to the 
fifth ; for the fifth does not even admit of a dactyl, to 
which the third has no antipathy ; therefore a fortiori, if 
the latter refuses admittance to an anapaest, the former 
must also. But the instances in which an anapaest is found 
in the third place are so few in number, and either require 
or admit of emendation, (as Porson has shewn by collect- 
ing and criticising them,) that no doubt can remain on that 
point. The second and fourth feet, being more pure in 
their nature, must of course be subject to the same re- 
strictions. 

19. As the anapaest of the proper name should be con- 
tained in the same word, so also the two short syllables of 
the anapaest were generally inclosed between two long syl- 



276 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

lables in that word, and they were slurred over, or very 
rapidly pronounced, as though they formed but one syl- 
lable, thus, 'AvnyovriQ was pronounced 'Avr'yovrje ; the 
same mode of pronunciation was used in the anapaests of 
common words in *comic verse. 

20. The reason assigned for the non-admission of anapaests 
into the third foot is, that by injuring the caesura, it would 
render the verse dixr/uiovcTov ; and for the exclusion of the 
dactyl from the fifth, that it would confound the termination 
of the iambic with that of a lame hexameter. 

21. The tragic poets do not often admit more than two 
trisyllabic feet into the same verse, never more than three. 
The second syllable of a tribrach or of a dactyl ought not 
to be either a monosyllable which is incapable of beginning 
a verse, or the last syllable of a word. 

22. From the rules concerning the admitted feet, it is 
evident that no word is admissible into a tragic senarius 
which has two short syllables between two long, nor can 
more than three long syllables be consecutive ; the diffi- 
culty is avoided in the case of proper names, either by 
using a choriambus instead of the first dipodia, or by 
making the first long syllable terminate one foot, and then 
having an anapaest as the next foot. 

23. Porson has observed that the second and third feet 
are seldom comprehended in one word, and that the third 
and fourth feet seldom consist of entire words, or parts of 
words, and are never comprehended in the "(-same word. 

24. The last syllable in each verse appears to be indif- 

* This accounts for their admission into every foot but the last in 
comic verse. 

f Otherwise both the penthemimeral and hepthemimeral csesurai 
would be excluded. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 277 

ferently short or long ; and even where one line ends with 
a short vowel, a vowel is often found at the beginning of 
the next. Sometimes, however, one verse with its final 
vowel elided passes by scansion into the next ; the case is 
thus restricted by Porson — " Vocalis in fine versus elidi 
non potest, nisi syllaba longa praecedat." 

25. An iambic verse has two principal caesuras ; *the 
penthemimeral, and the hepthemimeral ; the former di- 
viding the third, the latter the fourth foot. Of the first 
caesura there are four kinds ; 

(1) When the first syllable of the third foot is a short 
syllable ; as, 

Kivdvvog £<r)(e | §op\ irtattv 'EXXtjvikio. Hec. 5. 

(2) When a short syllable after elision : 
Tiarrjp tv' u ttot | 'iXtou Tuyp] Triaoi. Hec. 11. 

(3) When it is a long syllable : 

Anriov iv 9 A'iSrjQ | x w P^ wKiGTai Oewv. Hec. 2. 

(4) When it is a long syllable after elision : 

Kal rsv^Tai tov& | ovS' adojprjrog $/Xwv. Hec. 42. 
Of the second caesura there are eight kinds : 

(1) When it occurs at the end of a word of two or 
more syllables without elision : 

iN Hkw vEKpwv KtvO/Litova | feat <tkotov rrvXag. Hec. 1. 

(2) With elision : 

IIoXXgJv \6yu)v Zvpi)]Lia9' | ware fxi) Oavetv. Hec. 248. 

(3) When the short syllable is an enclitic : 

Ke/vrj yap gjXeo-cv viv \ dg Tpoiav r tlyzi. Hec. 266. 

(4) When not an enclitic, but a word which cannot 
begin a sentence : 

Ivpfiov $1 ]3 ouXo i ).iy\v av | a&ovfjizvov. Hec. 319. 

* The penthemimeral occurs about four times as often as the hep- 
themimeral, 



278 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

(5) When the word refers to what has preceded, but 
might begin a sentence: 

'Eiru irarrif) ovtoq ctoc | ov dpr\vuc au. Soph. Electr. 520. 

(6) When, in the same case, the short syllable is formed 
by elision : 

'AAA' our' £jtiot koXov too* | egtiv ovts aoi. Phil. 1288. 

(7) When there is a pause or break in the sense after 
the third foot, succeeded by a monosyllable, without eli- 
sion : 

'AAA' ov it6\iq GTvyUj av \ TifiriasiQ tchjhj)* Sep. Cont. 
Theb. 1040. 

(8) Under the same circumstances, with elision : 
lX Orav yap &v ^joovrje, to#' \ "hyfioti crv viov. Soph. Electr. 

1027. 

In the two last cases, the rhythm is less pleasant ; but, 
as Hermann remarks, it is adapted to solemn and impas- 
sioned language. 

26. The Quasi-Ccesura is another division of the sena- 
rius, which takes place either when a word suffers elision at 
the end of the third foot, or when y\ 8', //, a-', t\ are sub- 
joined to that foot ; as, 

kevt£it£ firi (pddeaO' | tyu) VIkov Tlapiv. Hec. 387. 

yvvcuQ irapOtvoig t \ aTrofiXeffTog fiira. Hec. 355. 

In these cases there is either a suspension of the sense, 
or of the continuous flow of the verse, which tends to 
obviate the labour of recitation that would otherwise take 
place. 

27. The Ccesural Pause is a division in the fifth foot, 
which is thus explained by Porson : # " If a senarius end 

* Porson gives this rule incorrectly ; the fifth foot could not be a 
tribrach, and at the same time form part of the concluding word sup- 
posed to be a cretic » the word tribrach should be omitted. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 279 

in a word which forms a cretic, and a word of more than 
one syllable precede, the fifth foot imist be an iambus or a 
tribrach. " The rule holds good if the cretic is resolved into 
a trochee and a long syllable, or into a long syllable and an 
iambus, provided the long syllable be an article or preposi- 
tion, or any word* which relates more to what follows than 
to what precedes. This canon is thus expressed by Elmsley : 
" The first syllable of the fifth foot of a Senarius must be 
short, if it ends a word of two or more syllables, unless 
the second syllable of the same foot is a monosyllable, 
which is incapable of beginning a verse." It is thus ex- 
pressed by Gaisford, " The Tragic writers seldom or never 
neglected the pause ; that is, they seldom or never divide a 
spondee in the fifth place between two hyper-monosyllabic 
words. 1 " The following are examples of this rule : 

KpVTTTOVTCt X^P a KCLi TTpOGWTTOV ZfiTToXlV I aild Hot TOV/X- 

iraAev. Hec. 343. 

kFjSoc ^£ rovjLiov jcat gov ovk£t' latl di] : Or. 1079. 

KaXwg fj.lv tlirag, Ovyarsp, ciXXa rw koXco. Hec. 3S2. 
But this canon does not apply when the second syllable o* 
the fifth foot, (viz. the monosyllable before the iambus,) is 
connected with what precedes, as being a word which can- 
not begin a verse, (such are av, av, yap, Si, &), fj.lv, fjrjv, 
ovv,) or an enclitic, except pronouns when emphatic ; as, 

Girevdufjev, IjKovwfjzv' fiyov f.iot | yipov. Hec. 505. 
but this verse, kcu yr\Q <piky\Q o\Qoigi KpvcpOu) xal ra^y, is 
faulty, because koX is a monosyllable capable of beginning 
a verse. 

It is is to be remarked, that in all the examples, where 
civ (which most frequently occurs in this position) forms the 

* Under this head of monosyllables, are embraced, vU, wwr, when 
interrogative, with fo oh w*J, and the like. 



280 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

second syllable of the spondee, it immediately follows its 
verb, which always suffers elision. The three following are 
only apparent exceptions : (1) Where the compounds of 
tig, as ovSdg, jtujSetc, are written as one word, when they 
should be written as two; as, afifyoTzpov cnroXzHpOtv yap ovdtv 
Qarzpov, Phoen. 775, where ov$lv should be ou8' tv ; that they 
should be thus written is evident, from the particle av being 
often interposed between them, and from the trisyllabic 
forms, ov$l ug and /*!?§£ ug, having come into use towards 
the close of the Aristophanic period. (2)* Where the 
dative cases of av and eyw are written as spondees ; thus, 
vjmv, rjjLuv ; whereas, they should be written, rjfiiv, vfiiv, or 
ijfiiv, vfj.Lv ; as Sophocles, to whose plays the remark applies, 
uses these pronouns as trochees ; as, r) vovg tvzariv ovng 
vfMv lyyevrig, Electr. 1328, here vfxlv would be inadmissi- 
ble. (3) Where the first syllable is prevented from being 
short by the initial consonants of the cretic ; as, -fifing fxlv 
ovv fwjutv, ovde -ipavofxtv, Hec. 717; but here there is not 
only no pause in the sense, but the concluding words form a 
cminquesyllabic termination, ov^rraavofxtv, and the spondee 
is as unobjectionable as if At^uavr/j/Hoe, or any other such 
word, concluded the line. 

Dissyllables, in which the vowel of the second syllable of 
the fifth foot is elided, are considered as monosyllables, as, 

oTTola Kiddbg dpvdg, oinog Triad' | t^Ofiai. Hec. 398. 
f This canon is as applicable to those verses in which the 
first syllable of the fifth foot is a monosyllable, which can- 
not begin a verse, as to those in which it terminates a word 

* Sophocles alone of the tragedians, shortened the last syllable in 
v/a7v and vf^v, 

■f Hence this verse is wrong— -tW tiyovs Igovw h 7afTw^«9e~y ; for 
7^read^, CEd.C. 115. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 281 

of two or more syllables. It may be laid down as a general 
rule, that the first syllable of the fifth foot must be short, 
if followed by the slightest pause or break in the sense. 

Elmsley remarks, that he has discovered no violation of 
Porson's canon in the fragments of Simonides and the 
other early iambic poets, from whom the tragedians pro- 
bably derived it. 

Thus it appears that there are only three cases in v which 
the fifth foot may be a spondee : 

(1) When both syllables are contained in the same word. 

(2) When the first syllable of the fifth foot is a mono- 
syllable which is capable of beginning a verse, and which is 
not disjoined from the following syllable by any pause in 
the sense. 

(3) When the second syllable is a monosyllable, which, 
by being incapable of beginning a sentence or a verse, is in 
some measure united to the preceding syllable. 

Of these three cases there are several varieties ; the fol- 
lowing are varieties of the first case, when both syllables 
are contained in the same word : 

(1) When the spondee is one word. 

(2) When the fourth and fifth, or part of the fourth 
and fifth, are contained in the same word. 

(3) When the fifth and sixth, or the fifth and part of 
the sixth, are contained in the same word 

Of the second case there are also three varieties : 

(1) When the cretic, which the monosyllable precedes, 
is formed by one word. 

(2) When the cretic is formed of a monosyllable and 
an iambus ; and of this there are two cases, viz. when the 
monosyllable is capable of beginning a verse, and when it 
is not. 



282 



THE GRECIAN' DRAMA. 



(3) When the cretic is formed of a trochee and a syllable. 
Of the third case there are two varieties : 

(1) When the first syllable is the final of an hypermono- 
syllabic word. 

(2) When the first syllable is a monosyllabic word ; of 
this there are two cases, viz. when that syllable is capable 
of beginning- a verse, and when it is not. 

Examples of all these varieties may easily be found in the 
plays. 

Hermann makes three exceptions to Porson's canon on 
the caesura! pause, viz. when the subject requires a more 
moliminous and difficult movement in the numbers, as, 
■ ArXac 6 jgfeXfcloidi vojtoiq vvpavov, Eurip. Ion. i. ; in the 
case of a proper name, as, vw/iwv, o r iodXbg 'ApiofiapSog, 
Miphaiv : Pers, 321 ; and when the hepthemimeral caesura 
occurs. 

28. The tragic writers never admit that structure of the 
words which divides the line into three entire iambic dipo- 
diae, like the artificial verse preserved by Athenaeus, and 
attributed to Oastorion of Soli, viz. cte tov )3oXotc | vi$qktv~ 
ttoiq | SvcrxelfAspov. Such verses are destitute of all variety. 
Oastorion is said to have composed an entire poem of such 
verses. 

29. Hermann contends, in opposition to Porson, that the 
second and third feet, and also the third and fourth, may be 
comprised in one word, the harshness of such a rhythm 
being well adapted to some subjects. On some occasions, 
he thinks that harshness is taken off by another caesura ; in 
other eases there is no caesura, as he thinks verses entirely 
destitute of caesuras are frequent, namely those, the several 
feet of which are contained in separate words. 

30. The tragedians might omit the augment in passages 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 283 

formed upon the model of epic poetry, such as narrations of 
messengers, which are termed priaug ayyekimi, hence some 
verses have been rid of anapaests, which vitiated them ; 
they also occasionally used \pr\v for lyjpr\v, and always 
avioya, KaQ&ofiriv, KaOifirjv, and kciQlvSov ; except in these 
cases, the Attic writers never dropped the augment. 

31. *Porson has observed, that the particles rs and ye 
cannot be admitted in a senarius as the second syllable of a 
trisyllabic foot ; the same particles also cannot stand as 
the first syllable in trochaic verse. 

32. In the later tragedy, the use of the tribrach is much 
more frequent, and there is altogether a greater negligence 
in the numbers ; so that even the tribrach, which is in 
place of a trochee, is not, according to ancient usage, com- 
prised in one word, or at least in a preposition and noun, 
as 2ta fiaxng, but is allowed to be formed from several 
words. 

33. According to Hermann, iambic numbers differ from 
trochaic, only in having an anacrusis ; he therefore scans 
the iambic trimeter as if it were trochaic, viz. by cutting 
off a syllable at the beginning, and then forming two 
trochaic dipodiae, followed by a cretic. Dawes scans the 
part as far as the penthemimeral caesura as iambic, and the 
remainder as trochaic. 

34. The following species of iambic verse are to be found 
in the choruses of tragedy, viz. the manometer, whose use is 
very rare among all poets ; it occurs, however, in systems 

This rule may be thus extended : — In tragic iambics, the second 
syllable of a tribrach or of a dactyl, ought not to be either a monosylla- 
ble, which is incapable of beginning a verse, as, <*v, 7<fy, $1, t*\v, re, T«r, 
&c. or the last syllable of a word. This rule is not strictly observed by 
the comic writers, 



284 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

of dimeters oftener than elsewhere : the monometer 
catalectic, or pentliemimer ; the dimeter hrachj-catalectic 
(Eiiripidean) ; the dimeter catalectic, or hepthemimer (Ana- 
creontic) ; the dimeter acatalectic (Archilochian or Aristo- 
phanian) ; this species was used by lyric poets and come- 
dians, as well as by tragedians ; when tragedians use 
systems of this kind, they are accustomed to conclude them 
with a verse of another species ; this species is used by 
Horace, Epod. iii. 12. The dimeter hyper catalectic ( Alcaic), 
used also by Horace, Od. i. 37, 15 ; the trimeter hrachj- 
catalectic (Alcmanic) ; the trimeter catalectic (Hipponac- 
tean), used also by Horace, Od. ii. 18. 

35. The comic trimeter admits anapaests into every 
place but the sixth, and a dactyl into the fifth, with this 
restriction, that a tribrach or dactyl immediately before an 
anapaest is inadmissible ; caesuras are neglected, and a spon- 
dee admitted into the fifth place without restrictions, or 
any regard to the law of the cretic termination, and even 
when a dactyl occupies the fifth place, the modes of con- 
cluding the verse which actually occur are those most di- 
rectly unlike to the tragic conclusion. The true constitution 
of the comic senarius was first discerned by Dawes ; the 
reason he assigns against the concurrence of a dactyl and 
anapaest is, the interval of four syllables from ictus to ictus 
which it would produce, when the lawful extent of that in- 
terval can only be three. On the trochaic scale of scansion, 
viz. by placing a cretic before the trimeter, the redundance 
of a syllable in the vulgar text is instantly discovered, thus 
the following line is defective ; cwtoq, Kaai^v lye.vero firi, 
rzpa, ktclvuv/, Orest. 499. The trochaic scale instantly 
detects the redundant syllable, aXXa vvv avjog kcikivjv^ tye- 
vztq ixr\Ttj)a ktcivwv^; the line is corrected. thus by Porson, 
viiTog Kdicfwv [Ar)nf> iyivSTQ Krav&Vi 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



28.' 



86. In the tragic trimeter the ictus occurs on the second 
syllable of the iambus and spondee, on the middle syllable 
of the tribrach and dactyl, and on the last syllable of the 
anapaest. As the structure of the iambic trimeter is deci- 
dedly trochaic, the correspondency between it and a certain 
portion of the trochaic tetrameter may be advantageously 
employed to illustrate the common properties of both ; thus, 
to any trimeter, (except those very few with initial ana- 
paests) let the cretic beginning SrfAacYj or aXXci vvv be pre- 
fixed, and every nicety of ictuation, more clear as it is and 
more easily apprehended in trochaic verse, will be imme- 
diately identified in iambic ; the correspondency of the iam- 
bic trimeter with that portion of the trochaic tetrameter is 
then only quite perfect, when the former verse has the pen- 
themimeral caesura. In the comic trimeter, as in the tragic, 
the *ictus occurs on the last syllable of the iambus, spon- 
dee, and anapaest, and on the middle syllable of the dactyl 
and tribrach. 

37. The iambic tetrameter catalectic, peculiar to co- 
medy, consists of eight feet all but a syllable, or may be 
considered as two dimeters, of which the first is complete 
in the technical measure ; the second is one syllable short 
of it. This tetrameter line, the most harmonious of iambic 
verses, is said to have its second dimeter catalectic to its 
first : the same mode of speaking prevails as to trochaic 
and anapaestic tetrameters. According to Porson it differs 
in two respects from the comic senarius ; 1st, that the 
fourth foot must be an iambus or tribrach ; 2nd, that the 

* Dunbar makes the ictus fall on the last of the iambus, spondee, and 
anapsest, on the first of the dactyl, and not at all on the tribrach. He 
says, that the middle syllable of the dactyl and tribrach, being- short, 
cannot be pronounced with a lengthened tone. 



286 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



sixth foot admits an anapaest : but the foot preceding the 
catalectic syllable must be an iambus, except in the case of 
a proper name, when an anapaest is allowed ; which license 
is also conceded to the fourth foot ; Elmsley contends that 
Porson is mistaken in restricting this license to the case of 
proper names, and argues successfully for the admission 
(but very rarely) of an anapaest of a common word in the 
fourth foot. In the resolved or trisyllabic feet one restric- 
tion obtains ; that a dactyl or tribrach cannot precede an 
iambus, a rule which even in the freer construction of the 
trimeter is always strictly observed from its essential neces- 
sity. The caesura generally takes place at the end of the 
fourth foot. 

The following is a table of scansion of the iambic tetra- 
meter catalectic. 



1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


G 


1 


8 


\S — 


V.' - 


vy — 


\-/ — 


\j — 


\J- 


\J- 


w 


w^/ 


v/v/w 


W\J 


vw 


\J\JKJ 


\J\J\J 






- - 




- - 




" " 








-w 




- vv 




~W 








vv- 


\J\J- 


Elmsley 


vu- 


\J\J- 

recipit. 


v/v- 








Proprii 


v^w- 


nominis. 


\J\J — 



From the first appearance of this table, it might be sup- 
posed that the varieties of this verse would be exceedingly 
numerous ; Elmsley, however, assigns two reasons for the 
actual number of these varieties being comparatively small * 
1st, all the trisyllabic feet which are admissible into comic 
iambics are employed with much greater moderation in the 
catalectic tetrameters than in the common trimeters ; 2nd, 
the comic poets admit anapaests more willingly and fre- 
quently into 1st, 3rd, and 5th places, than into 2nd ? 4th, 



THE GRECIAN DRAJIA. 287 

and 6th of the tetrameter. The structure of the tetrameter 
catalectic generally agrees with the scansion, and divides 
the verse into two dimeters; in the Plutus those lines which 
have this division are to those lines which divide the verse 
in the middle of a word or after an article, &c. nearly as 
four to one ; and very often the verse is even so construc- 
ted as to give a succession of iambic dipodias separately 
heard. As the tetrameter of comedy admits no feet but 
those which are found, and with more frequency, in the 
trimeter, the ictuation on the feet in each verse is the same. 
The Latins call this verse septenarius and comicus quad- 
ratics, and would have it to be asynartete. 

38. Aristophanes occasionally introduces a very elegant 
species of verse, which may be mentioned here, because 
it differs from the tetrameter iambic, only in having a cretic 
or pseon in the room of the third dipodia, and because it 
is frequently corrupted into a tetrameter iambic by the in- 
sertion of a syllable after tho first hemistich. In technical 
language it is an asynartete, composed of a dimeter iambic 
and an ithyphallic. It is called EvpiiridHov TtacrctpzaKaiSe- 
Ka<jvWafiov by Hepheestion, who has given the following 
specimen of it. 

'EqoQ avi\ iTnroTCLQ | t&XctfJiipev aGrfip. 

Twenty-five of these verses occur together in the Wasps 
of Aristophanes. 

89. In dimeter iambics, the comic poets, with the excep- 
tion of the catalectic dipodia, appear to admit anapaests 
into every place, but more frequently into the first and 
third, than into the second and fourth. They frequently 
employ systems of dimeters, terminated by a catalectic 
verse, and connected in one unbroken tenor of numbers, so 
that not only may words be divided in the ends of the 



288 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

verses, but even the hiatus and the doubtful syllable are 
excluded, and the last arsis may be resolved ; these systems 
are also found in Plautus. 

40. The comic poets did not divide words between two 
verses, except jocularly ; the Greeks never admitted a 
spondee into an even place of an iambic verse ; i. e. into 
the 2nd, 4th, and 6th ; the Latins often into the 2nd and 
4th, but never into the 6th. 

41. The lame or halting trimeter, called by the Greeks 
GKaZ(*)v, as also Hipponactean, from Hipponax, a writer of 
iambics, has this peculiarity, that its last dipodia consists of 
an antispastus. The tragedians abstained altogether from 
this metre, nor did the comedians use it, unless perhaps 
with allusion to the iambic writers. 

42. The iambic tetrameter acatalectic, called Boiscius 
from its inventor Boiscus, is not used by the Greek trage- 
dians and comedians. It is used by Greek iambic writers, 
and by the Latin dramatists, who call it octonarius. 

43. The satiric trimeter preserves for the most part the 
gravity of tragedy ; but as the species of drama in which 
it is used unites mirth with gravity, it was allowable to 
employ the anapaest sometimes, not only in the first foot, 
and that too an anapaest consisting of several words, but 
in the middle of a verse also, and in any word. The Cy- 
clops affords some examples. 

44. The following are examples of the different species 
of iambic verse used in the choruses of tragedy. 

Again. 187. Monom. acat. j3pora»; | a\al. 

Hec. 913. Monom. hypercat. or penthem. yjpvazihv | 

£V07T | TpOJV. 

Hec. 1066. Dim. brachycat. t\kvwv \ ^fxCov \ <pv\a^. 
Hec. 936. Dim. catal. or hephthemim. a\aa \ ropivv | Tig 
oi I Kvg. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



289 



Or. 150. Dim. hypercat. arptfxag | WX* Xo | 70V airo | Soc 
If' o I n. Hor. Od. 1. 37. 15. 

Phoen. 348. Trim, brachycat. £vyiv \ to. naUd \ o irol \ 
6v a I Bovav. 

Phcen. 1771. Trim, catal. yapiv a \ yapia \ tov fig \ Ot- 
ovg I S^ov I aa. Hor. Od. 2. 18. 

45. Trochaic Metre. 

The species of Trochaic Metre which is most used in the 
Greek tragedies is the Tetrameter Catalectic, the original 
metre of the dialogue. It consists of eight feet all but a 
syllable, or may be considered as made up of two dimeters, 
of which the second is catalectic to the first. The trochaic, 
unlike the iambic, admits equivalent feet into the even 
places, whilst it reserves for itself, or its isochronous foot, 
the tribrach, the odd. The tribrach is admitted into any 
place; the spondee and anapaest into the second, fourth, 
and sixth, but the dactyl is excluded, except in the case of 
proper names, and even then cannot enter the fourth or 
seventh places. The caesura falls after the second dipodia, 
which should terminate a word, and that word should not 
be an article or a preposition belonging in syntax to the 
second dimeter, as there should be a distinct pause in the 
sense. The following is a scale of this metre : 

12 3 4 5 6 7 8 



-\*z 


-V.' 


-w 


- w 


- w 


- w 


- w 


- 


\J w 


V./V — 


www 


www 

ww- 


www 


www 
ww- 


www 




-WW 


- WW 


-WW 




-WW 


-ww 




.1 



Fioper 

Name. 

46. The dactyl of a proper name is admitted chiefly 
where its two short syllables are inclosed between two longs 
in the same word ; very rarely where the word begins with 



290 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

them ; under other circumstances, never. Elmsley confines 
the dactyl to one word, and corrects the only three lines 
in which it appears divided between two words. 

47. If a spondee or anapaest occur in the sixth place, it 
should not be followed by a tribrach in the seventh ; for if 
this were allowed, then a dactyl should be admissible into 
the fifth place of a senarius ; this will appear at once by 
removing a cretic from the beginning. 

48. # If a cretic, or a first or fourth paeon, be taken away 
from the beginning of a trochaic tetrameter catalectic, 
there remains a trimeter iambic catalectic (otherwise 
called a trochaic senarian), which has two peculiarities : — 
First, that an anapaest is inadmissible even in the first 
foot, for were it admitted, a dactyl might be admitted into 
the second of a trochaic tetrameter catalectic ; and secondly, 
that it has always the penthemimeral caesura ; indeed the 
break there is as decisive as if the verse were divided into 
two lines. "fSo that not only is it inadmissible for a com- 
pound word to be broken, but not even an article or a pre- 
position is suffered to terminate the fourth foot. The rule 
respecting the pause is also scrupulously observed. 

49. If the first dipodia consist of an entire word or 
words, and so as to be followed by a slight break of the 
sense, and so that the second foot is not divided between 
two words, the second foot is generally a trochee, may be 
a tribrach, but cannot be a spondee or anapaest ; this 
nicety of structure was first discovered by Porson. 

50. There is a rule with regard to the sixth foot of this 

* A cretic, when the verse commences with two trochees, or with a 
trochee followed by a spondee ; a first paeon, when the first dipode 
ends with a tribrach ; a fourth pseon, when it commences with one. 

f This strictness is not observed in the iambic senary. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 291 

species of metre, similar to that regarding the caesura! 
pause in the trimeter iambic. If then a verse be con- 
cluded by one word forming the cretic termination, or by 
more words than one to that amount united in meaning, 
so that after the sixth foot, that portion of sense and sound 
is separately received, then the sixth cannot be a spondee or 
anapaest, but must be either a trochee or tribrach ; a 
spondee, however, is admissible, if its second long syllable 
be in the middle of a word, or be a monosyllable more 
connected with what follows than with what precedes. 
The varieties of this are similar to those already noticed 
on the csesural pause. The cases then in which the sixth 
foot may be a spondee, are — first, when both syllables are 
contained in the initial or medial syllables of the same 
word ; if, however, the two syllables of the sixth foot form 
one word, it must be a trochee, unless followed by a mono- 
syllable incapable of beginning a sentence or verse ; like- 
wise if the fifth and sixth feet form one word, or the word 
concludes with the sixth foot, the sixth foot must be a 
trochee, unless under similar circumstances of the consecu- 
tive syllable. Secondly, when the spondee is divided 
between two hypermonosyllabic words. Thirdly, between 
a monosyllable and an hypermonosyllabic word. Fourthly, 
between a hypermonosyllabic word and a monosyllable ; of 
this case there are two varieties, viz. — when the monosylla- 
ble is capable of beginning a verse, and when it is not ; in 
this latter variety the spondee is inadmissible, unless that 
monosyllable be followed by an enclitic, or any word in- 
capable of beginning a sentence or verse. Fifthly, between 
two monosyllables ; of this also there are two varieties, viz. 
— when the second monosyllable is capable of beginning a 
verse, and when it is incapable : in this latter case the 



292 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



spondee cannot be admitted, unless that monosyllable be 
followed by another incapable of beginning a sentence or 
verse. Though it appears to be legitimate to have the sixth 
foot a spondee, although one word, before an enclitic, or a 
monosyllable incapable of beginning a verse, yet there 
seems to be no instance in which it is not a trochee. 

51. It is to this origin that the law, concerning the 
csesural pause in the iambic trimeter, should be ascribed. 
For in a trochaic tetrameter catalectic, there are three 
natural divisions : — 



Of these, the second gives us the penthemimeral caesura in 
the iambic, the last the caesural pause ; and thus the same 
law which applies to the catalectic part of the- trochaic 
tetrameter catalectic, must also apply to the comma in the 
iambic, resulting from the penthemimeral caesura. There- 
fore, in whatever cases the sixth foot of the trochaic cannot 
be a spondee, in the same the fifth foot of the iambic 
cannot be a spondee. This likewise shows us the reason of 
Hermann^ observation regarding those lines, in which the 
hepthemimeral caesura occurs, to which the Porsonian 
canon should not be applied. Let us now consider the first 
division : — Porson^s canon, viz. that if the first dipodia 
consist of an entire word or words, followed by a slight 
break of the sense, the second foot is a trochee, and may 
be a tribrach, must be confined to those cases in which the 
second foot is not divided between two words, viz. when it 
is a separate word, or rperliaps when formed of the final 
syllables of a word ; otherwise violations of the canon may 
be found. Now this is but a particular application of a 
general rule, for in no place of a trochaic tetrameter cata- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 293 

lectic but the fourth, can a separate word form a spondee ; 
nor in any other than the second and fourth, can the 
concluding syllables of a word form a spondee. A spondee, 
therefore, is admissible into the sixth place, only when 
divided between two words, or formed of the beginning or 
middle of a word, and all separate dissyllabic or trisyllabic 
words, unless in the fourth place, are respectively trochees 
or tribrachs. Thus, if the second or sixth foot be a 
separate word, it must be a trochee or tribrach. The 
spondee, therefore, of the second foot, appears to be re- 
stricted almost as much as that of the sixth. In the 
fourth place, the spondee is unrestricted ; the instances of 
dissyllabic words in that place being spondees, are very 
numerous. 

52. Resolutions of long syllables are more frequent in the 
first foot of each dipodia, than in the second, because 
remission in the force of the rhythm is more agreeable than 
intension. The later tragedy, which took its rise about the 
89th Olympiad, was not only more negligent about rhythm 
in general, but immoderate also in resolutions, so that it 
even admitted dissyllabic words into a tribrach. The more 
ancient did not indulge themselves in this, except in pre- 
positions, and certain other words closely connected. 

53. The comic tetrameter trochaic, like the tragic, may 
be considered as a common trimeter iambic, with a cretic 
or pseon prefixed, but this trochaic senarius admits, though 
rarely, a dactyl in the fifth place, and a spondee in that 
place subject to no restrictions ; thus the comic tetrameter 
agrees in scansion with the tragic, except that the spondee 
in the sixth sometimes precedes the tribrach in the 
seventh, and the rules regarding the caesura after the 
second dipodia, and the divisions which sometimes take 



294 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

place after the first clipodia, or before the final cretic, are 
disregarded. The comic agrees with the tragic in excluding 
dactyls, except in the case of proper names. In three 
verses, Aristophanes has twice introduced a proper name 
by means of a choriambus, and once by an ionic a minore, 
in the place of the regular trochaic dipodia. The Latins, 
who term this verse quadratics and septenarius, use frequent 
resolutions, and admit into all places, except in the last 
dipodia, a spondee, an anapaest, and even a dactyl. 

54. The trochaic tetrameter acatalectic is not used by 
the Greek dramatic poets ; it is used by the Latin dramatic 
writers, who call it octonarius. 

55 'a The lame trochaic tetrameter catalectic is peculiar 
to Iambic writers ; it is so called, because it ends, not in an 
iambus, as the common tetrameter does, but in a trochee. 

56. The trochaic pentameter catalectic, called vTripfierpov, 
because it exceeds thirty times, which metricians contend 
ought not to be exceeded, is not used by either the Greek 
or Latin dramatic poets. 

57. The trimeter hypercatalectic is used in Greek tra- 
gedy ; it is also called Sapphic ; yXOov j ae do | /xoue, tV | 
avO' e | KciGTa | <tol \i \ yu). Or. 1397. 

58. The trimeter acatalectic. Bentley affirms that this 
metre is unknown to tragedy and comedy. Gaisford ad- 
duces two instances (as he thinks) from Sophocles, but 
Hermann says they belong to epitrites. 

59. Trimeter catalectic (Sotadic) ; KarOa \ vcl, kcl | nog a 

CL | TTOKTU | VU 7TO | dig. Or. 1466. 

60. Trimeter bra chy catalectic (Sapphic) ; w t% \ kvov, 

T£ | KVOV TCL \ XdiVClQ \ fXUTpoQ. HeC. 688. 

61 . Dimeter hypercatalectic (Bacchilidean) ; ag % | yfjfi 
o | to£o | Tac Ila | pig. Or. 1408. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 295 

62. Dimeter acatalectic (Alcmanic) ; trot Tpa | 7ra>jutu | ; 
ttoi 7ro I pzvOu). Hec. 1082. 

63. Dimeter catalectic, hepthemimer (Euripidean) ; rwv 
a \ TTopOf) J tlov 7ro | Xig. Hec. 894. So in Horace, non 
e | bur ne j que aure [ urn. 

64. Dimeter brachycatalectie (Ithyphallic or Hemiho- 
lius) ; ^ktv j XoTc £ | XTo-ae | . Or. 1430. 

65. Monometer hypercatalectic, or peDthemimer ; tl 
ttot av | aari \ velg. Hec. 183. 

66. Monometer acatalectic, or basis trochaica ; aari j 

VCIKTOQ. 

Trochaic monometers are usually found in systems ; 
which, as in most other numbers, so in the trochaic also, it 
is the custom, especially of comedians, to form of dimeters. 
These systems are continued in one unbroken tenor, con- 
cluded by a catalectic verse, or by one of a different species ; 
on which account there is no place for hiatus at the end of 
each verse, nor is it held necessary to conclude a verse with 
an entire word, but the whole system is as one verse. 

67. The ictus in trochaic verse, both in tragedy and 
comedy, falls on the first syllable of the trochee, and of its 
equivalent tribrach ; also on the first syllable of the trochaic 
spondee, and of its equivalent anapsest. Dunbar makes it 
fall on the first of the trochee, spondee, and dactyl, and on 
the last of the anapaest. 

68. Anapaestic Metre. 
Anapsests are a metre, from their nature, adapted to 
accompany a firm vigorous step. The equality, in respect 
of quantity, between the arsis and thesis in this metre, 
between the stronger and the weaker portion of the 
rhythmical beat, gives it a staid and measured character. 
The reason why the arsis follows the thesis is, because by 



296 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

the natural law of the human pace, in advancing a step, 
the stronger foot remains stationary, in order to propel the 
body : when the impulse is given, the foot follows after it, 
and does this with the more weight and force, the more 
the body is accustomed to depend for its motion on that 
foot principally. For this reason the march-songs of the 
Greeks were in general anapaestic ; and agreeably with this 
arrangement, it is found, that wherever anapaests occur in 
Greek tragedy, they accompany a steady pacing or march. 
This may be proved to be the case, almost without ex- 
ception. It is in anapaests that the chorus sings at its 
entrance, at its exit, and when it moves towards a person 
or accompanies him. Every where they remind us of those 
marches or battle-songs of the old Dorians Qfifiarripioi 
waiaveg), the very acclamation in which (eXtA^ l\s\tv), 
accorded with the anapaestic rhythm in which they were 
composed. In those long series of anapaestic systems, 
which we find at the beginning of the Persians, Suppliants, 
and Agamemnon of iEschylus, we may perhaps see the 
original form of the Parodos, strictly so called ; that is to 
say, of the entrance of the chorus into the orchestra, drawn 
up in regular form by rank and file. 

69. There are two kinds of Anapaestic verses, one, which 
proceeding by dipodiae, has the full measure of the arsis, 
whence it admits a spondee, a dactyl, and a proceleusmatic 
rarely ; the other, of the anapaestics, called cyclii, which has 
a disproportionate arsis, does not proceed by dipodiae, does 
not admit a dactyl, admits an iambus in the first place, 
and is without caesura. 

70. Of those which proceed by dipodiae, the acatalectic 
monometer is often met with ; it is frequent in systems of 
dimeters, where it is called an anapaestic base. Synesius 
has written three hymns in this metre. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



297 



71. The dimeter acatalectic is the measure most frequently 
used. The regular systems, which not unfrequently occur, 
consist of dimeters acatalectic, mixed with monometers 
acatalectic, and dimeters catalectic ; the admissible feet 
are the anapaest , dactyl, and spondee, which may enter any 
place ; but in the dimeter catalectic, it is better to have the 
anapaest before the catalectic syllable. Sometimes, a pro- 
celeusmaticus is found in anapaestic verse, but never in 
legitimate systems. The caesura almost always falls after 
the first dipodia ; however, there are instances in which it 
does not fall so, but on the short syllable which begins the 
second dipodia. The dimeter catalectic is called parcemiac, 
from Trapoifiia, a proverb, as that was the metre in which 
they were sometimes composed. 

72. Scale of the Anapaestic Dimeter Acatalectic : 



1 


2 


3 4 


KJKJ- 




\ 









Scale of the Parcemiac, or Dimeter Catalectic : 



\J\J- 


\J\J- 


w — 


- 


-w 


-vv/ 






""" 


~~ 







Scale of the Anapaestic Base, or Monometer Acatalectic 



— \JKJ 





73. The anapaestic systems, peculiar to the dramatic 
poets, are sometimes antistrophic, sometimes not ; written 



298 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

sometimes in the Doric dialect, sometimes in the common, 
sometimes in both promiscuously. Those systems are 
legitimate which are concluded with a paroemiac, and in 
which each dipodia is terminated with a word. The ille- 
gitimate systems are for the most part written in the 
Doric dialect. 

74. In dimeters, a dactyl is very seldom placed before an 
anapaest, lest there should be a concourse of four short 
syllables : this never occurs in the same dipodia. In 
tetrameter anapaestics, no genuine instance of this license 
occurs. In both kinds of anapaestic verse, dactyls are 
admitted with much greater moderation into the second. 
than into the first place of the dipodia. The anapaestic 
dipodia may be composed of a tribrach and an anapaest, for 
the purpose of admitting a proper name, which could not 
otherwise be introduced into the verse. 

In the predominant or anapaestic dipodia, the anapaest 
and spondee are combined without any restriction. In the 
occasional or dactylic dipodia, the dactyl most usually 
precedes its own spondee ; sometimes the dactyl is paired 
with itself; very rarely, and perhaps not agreeably, in the 
dactylic dipodia, the spondee is found to precede the dactyl. 
It was mentioned that a dactyl is seldom placed before an 
anapaest ; this combination is not often found even between 
one dimeter and another, it is very rare where one dipodia 
closes with a dactyl and the next begins with an anapaest, 
and never occurs in the same dipodia. 

75. The first dipodia generally ends with a word ; this, 
however, is not always the case, and of such verses as 
want that division those are the most frequent, and the 
most pleasing also, which have the first dipodia after an 
anapaest (sometimes after a spondee) overflowing into the 



THE GHECIAN DRAMA. 299 

(second, with the movement anapaestic throughout: as, 
iTTEpvywv epeTfiotaiv tptvaofjizvoi. Agam. 52. 

76. The Synapheia (awa^ta), that property of the ana- 
paestic system, which Bentley first observed, is neither 
more nor less than continuous scansion : that is, scansion 
continued with strict exactness from the first syllable to 
the very last, but not including the last itself, as that syl- 
lable, and only that in the whole system, may be long or 
short indifferently. The synapheia is also observed in di- 
meter iambics, dimeter trochaics, ionics a minore, and dac- 
tylic tetrameters. 

77. In this species of verse one hiatus alone is permitted, 
in the case of a final diphthong or long vowel, so placed as 
to form a short syllable ; as, iroOiovcrai Idstv apTi%vyiav. 
Pers. 548. 

78. When the monometer or anapaestic base occurs, it 
generally precedes the parcemiac ; it is seldom found at the 
commencement of a system. The parcemiac generally occurs 
at the end of a system, but it is often met with before the 
end, and then the sentence generally concludes with it ; a 
dactyl seldom occurs in the first place of a parcemiac, and 
never before an anapaest in the second. In the common 
dimeter those dipodias form the most pleasing verse which 
end in entire words ; but this law does not equally obtain 
in the parcemiac, which then comes most agreeably to the 
ear when it forms the latter hemistich of the dact}dic 
hexameter. 

79. Elmsley remarks that the rhythm is violated, when 
the three last syllables of a word, which are capable of 
standing in the verse as an anapsest, are divided between 
a dactyl and the following foot, since it thus becomes 
rather dactylic than anapsestic. 



300 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



80. There are four circumstances which excuse an hiatus, 
and a short syllable in place of a long one at the end of a 
line, viz. exclamation, address, change of person, and the 
end of a sentence. 

81. It happens very rarely that a word is made to reach 
beyond a verse by one short syllable. The shortest systems 
appear to consist of one dimeter and a paroemiac. In 
reciting verses which contain several dactyls, it is necessary 
to beware, lest by giving the ictus to the first syllable of a 
dactyl instead of the second, which ought to have it, they 
be converted into dactylic. When the systems are anti- 
strophic, foot does not answer to foot, but yet the division 
of the metres is usually alike. 

82. The illegitimate systems differ from the legitimate in 
these five respects. First, in measure, for they not only 
admit a proceleusmatic, but have sometimes nearly whole 
verses constructed of proceleusmatics : in other places the 
verses consist almost wholly of spondees. Secondly, in the 
caesura, which is not only allowed to be neglected, but is 
often neglected on purpose. Thirdly, in continuity, for 
they are sometimes either connected with other numbers, 
or are interrupted by them. Fourthly, in the use of the 
paroemiac, for it may even begin a sentence, and many of 
those verses are often put in uninterrupted succession. 
Fifthly, in the catalexis, for they have no certain manner of 
conclusion, but are terminated, sometimes by one paroemiac, 
sometimes by more, at other times by none, and at others 
even by different numbers. 

83. The dimeter, having the elevations resolved, was by 
some called the Aristophanean proceleusmatic tetrameter ; 
but by the better skilled, anapaestic ; as, rig opta fiaQvKOfjia 
rao" IrriavTO j3porwv. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. SOI 

84. Those spondiac verses, among which several successive 
catalectic verses are inserted, are, as being grave and suited 
to sorrow, employed principally by the tragedians, and 
mostly as antistrophic. Neglect of the caesura is peculiar 
to these. Although these catalectic verses have the last 
syllable doubtful, yet it is commonly contrived that it may 
be long. If ever a hypercatalectic monometer occurs 
joined with these verses, it appears more probable that 
it is a dochmiac. 

85. The laws respecting dimeter anapaestics are in gene- 
ral accurately observed by comic writers. Aristophanes 
has, in two or three instances, neglected the rule of making 
each dipodia end with a word. 

86. The anapaestic tetrameter acatalectic was used by 
the Latins only. The tetrameter catalectic, (anapaesticus 
Aristophanicus,) peculiar to comedy, was used by both 
Greeks and Eomans. It may be considered as made up 
of two dimeters, of which the second is catalectic to the 
first. In the three first places, besides an anapaest and 
spondee, a dactyl is used ; so also in the fifth, but not in 
the fourth or sixth ; the proceleusmatic is excluded ; caesuras 
are accurately observed, subject to the same restrictions as 
in the tragic trochaic, even so far, that they must not take 
place after a preposition or an article ; a dactyl imme- 
diately before an anapaest is unlawful ; so also when pre- 
fixed to an ionic a minore at the end of a verse. The rule 
of making each dipodia end with a word is sometimes vio- 
lated ; yet in this case, supposing the second foot a dactyl 
and the third a spondee, the last syllable of the dactyl can- 
not commence a word, whose quantity is either an iambus 
or bacchius. The most frequent license is that in which a 
long vowel or a diphthong is shortened before a vowel, but 



302 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

Aristophanes, (who from his frequent use of this verse has 
given it his name,) rarely lengthens a vowel before a mute 
and a liquid, except when he introduces a passage from 
Homer or other authors, or in the case of a proper name. 
Dact)ds are admitted much more sparingly into the second 
than into the first place of the dipodia. In the twelve hun-r 
dred tetrameter anapaestics of Aristophanes, only nineteen 
examples occur of a dactyl in second, the only second place 
of a dipodia which it can occupy ; in thirteen of those verses 
the preceding foot is also a dactyl ; in the remaining six of 
those verses four have the dactyl after a spondee ; of all 
those nineteen verses one only is destitute of the caesura 
after the first dipodia. The transition from anapaestic 
movement to dactylic, and vice versa is very rare. Those 
lines are most harmonious which exhibit, besides the one 
necessary division after the first dimeter, that after the first 
dipodia also ; of one hundred and ten verses of the Plutus, 
one hundred and four observe both division, of the remain- 
ing six, three differ only by having the dactyl in quinto, and 
the other three, though wanting the division after the first 
dipodia, yet present the continuous flow of anapaestic move- 
ment throughout. 

87. The logaoedic anapaestics are cyclian, generally ter- 
minated with a bacchee. 

88. Besides the dimeter acatalectic, parcemiac, and base, 
the following varieties are used in Greek tragedy : 

Monometer hypercatalectic or penthemimer : dopt drj \ 
Sopt 7T£p I aav. Hec. 897. 

Dimeter brachycatalectic : KpTvu \ rplaGag \\ jua/capwv. 
Hec. 641. 

Dimeter hypercatalectic : ot>0' o ira \ pa tov A%i || povra 
U | og avaa || <xwv. Soph. El. 184. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 303 

89. The following may serve as a short specimen of an 
anapaestic system with all its usual parts : 

? A\Aa <x' 6 Malag TrofiTraZog avaE, 

wv t sirlvotav gttzvBziq Karl^wv, 
Trpa&iaQi £7ra yevvaiog avi)p, 

Alyev, irap 9 Ifiol SeSoKrjaca. Med. 757. 

90. The * ictus metricus, according to Dawes, falls on 
the last syllable of the anapaest and spondee, and on the 
middle syllable of the dactyl ; according to Tate, on the 
last syllable of the anapaest and its companion spondee, 
and on the first syllable of the dactyl and its accompanying 
spondee. Tate's opinion is to be preferred. 

91. Dactylic Metre. 
The ancient writers on rhythm call trochaic rhythm 
cWAamoi', dactylic, i'aoi/, because in the former a double 
time is set together or compared with a single one, in the 
latter a double with a double, that is an equal with an 
equal. But not all dactylic numbers have this comparison ; 
for in some, as in the heroic verse, and cyclian anapaests, 
(Hermann classes anapaestic among dactylic, and iambic 
among trochaic numbers,) the long syllable which is in 
arsis, is accounted aXoyog, i. e. irrationalis, (dispropor- 
tionate,) as being somewhat shorter than a double time ; 
and on this account the arsis in these kinds is not resolved 
into two syllables, whereas in the other kinds it is often so 
resolved. In most dactylic verses a dactyl and spondee 

* Dunbar makes the ictus fall on the last of the anapsest, and on the 
first of the spondee and dactyl. He thinks this verse so similar to 
hexameter, that, with the exception of the anapsest itself, it has the ictus 
similarly placed, 



304 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

alone are used ; in a few and seldom, a # proceleusmatic or 
anapaest, which feet seem to be admissible in those dactylics 
only, whose arsis has not the irrational measure. Where- 
fore, the resolution of the arsis is excluded from the heroic 
verse, and elegiac pentameter, and from other kinds, 
chiefly the logaoedic. And on the whole, this resolution, if 
any where found, is mostly of a doubtful nature, except in a 
proper name. 

92. In dactylic metre one foot constitutes a metre ; the 
catalexis of dactylics is two-fold ,• on one syllable, and on 
two syllables ; as, 

Acatalectic verses, except in systems, in which the numbers 
are continued, are ended with a dactyl, not a spondee, lest 
they should appear to be catalectic on two syllables. Those 
lines which terminate with a spondee (or a trochee, which 
amounts to the same thing, on account of the adiaQopia, or 
the capability of considering the last syllable common) are 
generally called catalectic on a dissyllable. Hermann speak- 
ing of the hexameter ef the tragedians, says, " Nam nee 
trochaeo finitur, sed dactylo vel spondeo :" but Maltby re- 
marks, that Hermann is mistaken in this. Vid. iEsch. 
supp. 73. Agam. 134, 147, 150, 151. 

93. The following species of dactylic metre are in use. 
Monom. hypercat. OTSnro | Sa. 

94. Dim. cat. on two syllables, called Adonic, roiad* 
ojuo | <pu)vov. Ag. 166. in this verse a dactyl is not changed 
into a spondee ; it is used in concluding the sapphic stanza 
in Horace. Sappho wrote whole poems in Adonics. 

* It would seem that the anapaest and proceleusmatic should be 
contracted into a spondee and dactyl. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 305 

95. Dim. acat. rig §' £?ri \ Tv/iffiog: ov dele \ rjvopa: it 
is found for the most part in systems combined with tetra- 
meters. 

96. Trim. cat. on one syllable ; 'Apre/xi | Soe rt $£ | ag. 
Hec. 462.; the spondee is admissible into the first place. 
It is used by Horace, " arboribusque comae ;" Od. 4. 7. 

97. Trim. cat. on two syllables ; woXXa yap \ war ukcl \ 
fiavTog ; when this verse has a spondee in the first foot, care 
must be taken not to confound it with the Pherecratean 
verse, as in iEsch. Ag. 108. ciXko. Gviupv-og aldjv. A spondee 
will scarcely be found in the second foot. 

98. Trimeter acat. Zeulo/xcrt | apfxau. | nioXovg ; Hec. 
467. The spondee is admissible into the first and third 
places. Hermann says, he does not remember to have found 
a trimeter and pentameter, which end in a dactyl, and are 
therefore to be accounted openly acatalectic. If trimeters 
are found in systems, it is attributable to a faulty distribu- 
tion of the verses : two verses of this kind should be con- 
joined into one hexameter. 

99. Tetrameter cat. on one syllable ; d> ttoXv | kXcivtZ 
<£i | XoiGi 6a | vibv ; Pers. 680. Dunbar excludes the 
spondee from the third place ; Heath admits it. 

100. Tetram. cat. on two syllables; (palvofit | vov kcl- 
kov | otfcaS' a j yeaOal. Archilochus wrote epodes, and Ana- 
creon whole poems in this verse. 

101. Tetram. acat. §i£ici | juii>, Kara | fiofitya ci | <pa<j~ 
juara; Ag. 148. Dunbar excludes the spondee from the 
fourth place, but Hermann admits it into every place. The 
dramatic poets use the tetram. acat. both separately, so 
that, on account of the doubtful last syllable, a cretic also 
might be put in the end, and in systems, in which the final 
syllable not being common, the last foot must be a dactyl 

x 



306 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

or a spondee. The lyric poets, as Alcman, composed whole 
strophes in this metre. The dramatists in their antistro- 
phics carefully assimilate all the feet, so that a dactyl may 
answer to a dactyl, and a spondee to a spondee. The cata- 
lexis of the systems is sometimes dactylic on two syllables ; 
at other times they subjoin a verse of another kind to dac- 
tylic numbers ; they admit acatalectic dimeters and hexame- 
ters into systems of tetrameters. The following are in- 
stances of the dactylic tetrameter in Horace : " Oertus 
enim promisit Apollo ;" " Mensorem cohibent Archyta." 

102. Pentameter cat. on one syllable ; rwv fitya | Xcov 
Aava | (a>v vtto | /cAr?£o/.i£ | vav. Aj. 224. 

103. Pent. cat. on two syllables : x a ~ l P* " I v ®% *™ I P* 
ZaO% | ag /maicap | ?} flag ; this verse is called Simmieus, be- 
cause used by Simmias. 

104. The elegiac pentameter, similar to the Latin, but ad- 
mits a trisyllabic word at the end ; as, Odfxov a \ irony ft \ ovt 

J aXKifiov j Iv kovl J v. Some have thought that the elegiac 
pentameter is composed of two dactyls, a spondee, and two 
anapsests. The caesura, which must be inviolably in the third 
arsis, removes all doubt that it is composed of two dactylic 
7rzvdii}iifAzpr\ ; but it is not asynartete, for the third arsis, 
in which is the csesura, neither admits a hiatus, except such 
as in the dactylic poetry of the Greeks is accounted no 
hiatus, nor a doubtful syllable ; so that it happens very seldom 
indeed that a short syllable in that place is made long by 
virtue of the csesura and arsis. Nothing but the necessity 
of a proper name, and that too a compound one, can excuse 
neglect of the csesura. Elision obstructs not the csesura. 
Spondees are admitted in the first part, but not in the 
second, because the numbers at their conclusion ought to 
run more freely and easily, instead of being retarded by the 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, SO? 

sluggishness of spondees. A verse of which every foot Is a se- 
parate word is inelegant. The first part of the verse is more 
elegant when a dactyl precedes a spondee, than when a spondee 
precedes a dactyl. Of all verses one terminated by a trisylla- 
ble is the least approved, one terminated by a word of four or 
five syllables is esteemed better, but the best verse is one 
ending in a word of two syllables, the feet ending in the 
middle of words. If the last syllable be by nature short, 
care is taken that it may be terminated by a consonant, be- 
cause it is thus more easily lengthened ; if terminated by a 
short vowel, it is not elegant. This verse is usually subjoined 
to the heroic hexameter, thus making the most ancient 
kind of strophes, having (he name of elegies. It has been once 
used in tragedy ; Eurip. Androm. 103. sqq. On account of 
the equality of its numbers the elegiac pentameter cannot 
well be often repeated alone ; it is thus repeated by Yirgil 
in that sportive effusion, " sic vos won vohis" In this verse 
the Romans surpassed the Greeks in elegance, chiefly by 
apt disposition of words, especially in the latter part. In 
the pentameter a syllabic caesura generally takes place 
at the penthemimeiv: and a trochaic in the foot preceding 
the final syllable in the second hemistich. There is some- 
times a monosyllabic caesura at the penthemimeris, when the 
preceding word is a monosyllable. The trochaic caesura is 
sometimes neglected in the foot preceding the final syllable, 
and the verse is concluded by a word of four or more sylla- 
bles. A sentence is generally completed in each distich. A 
monosyllable is seldom found at the end of a pentameter 
or hsz; meter, unless it is elided or preceded by another 
mc ■" .-.syllable. 

105. Hexameter cat. on two syllables; of which there 
are two species ; the one is the heroic ; the other is used by 



308 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

the tragedians, and differs from the heroic in proceeding by 
dipodise ; it consequently has not that caesura which is usual 
in the heroic. The heroic is so called, because in this verse 
the deeds of heroes were celebrated. The first four feet 
may be dactyls or spondees, the fifth generally a dactyl, 
the sixth always a spondee, the last syllable being con- 
sidered common : in the fifth foot a spondee is sometimes 
admitted, when the verse is termed spondaic. *This is of 
all metres the most ancient and celebrated, and from 
its endless variety may be repeated for ever without dis- 
agreeableness, and be adapted to the expression of the most 
different things. Four caesuras are mentioned by metricians, 
TTEvOrifiifitprig, Kara Tptrov rpoyaiov, l(j)Orif.ufxeprjg^ Ttrpairodia 
fiovKoXiKTj, viz. — 

1st — vw/- w-'lvyv—vv/- w-\j 
2nd, -w-w-v]< 

3rd, 

4th — vu-w-w-vu — vv^ — vy 

Of these the most in use are the two first ; the third, which 
is more vehement, is not so frequent ; the bucolic is almost 
always employed by the Greek bucolic writers, but at the 
same time accompanied by one of the two first, and where 
it appears suitable, is [often admitted by other poets also. 
Several csesuras are often made in one verse, and the ex- 
cellence of a long poem appears in a well-managed variety 
of caesuras. Of these, such as are in arsis are more mascu- 
line, and except where the softness and effeminacy of the 
subject rejected them, were universally preferred till the 
time of Nonnus. To Nonnus and the succeeding poets, 

* The dactylic hexameter " Panditur interea domus omnipotentis 
Olympi," becomes anapaestic trimeter catalectic, by taking away one 
[syllable: " Patet interea domus omnipoteniis Olympi." 



-\J\J - \JV — \J \J - i \J\J— \J\J - \J 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 309 

those softer or more feminine caesuras which are made in a 
trochee, by leaving the last syllable of a dactyl in the fol- 
lowing word, were more agreeable, joined with frequent use 
of dactyls, by which a great volubility of numbers is pro- 
duced. Since a caesura may be made thrice in every foot, 
if the feet be dactyls, the number of all the caesuras is 
sixteen. Homer has allowed himself a trochee for a spon- 
dee in some few passages, and that in the first and fourth 
feet, II. (5. 731, o. 554< : Od. k. 493, ju. 267. Since a pause 
is made at the end of every verse, the poets preferred those 
forms of words which might end a verse with a long 
syllable ; on that account they both added the paragogic 
v, and chose to put uvm, ah\, in the end of a verse, rather 
than ifip.iv, adv. The Greeks always end a heroic verse 
w T ith a whole word ; whence many words are curtailed in 
ancient poetry, as, Sw, Kpl. In bucolic or pastoral hexa- 
meters, the verses of most frequent occurrence are those 
in which the fourth foot is a dactyl ending a word, or in 
which the bucolic caesura occurs. The hexameter fxdovpog, 
is that in which the last foot is a pyrrich or iambus ; this 
metre is, on the whole, inelegant ; but rather less so when 
the caesura is made at the end of the fourth foot. The 
syllabic caesura may take place in an hexameter at the 
triemimeris, penthemimeris, hepthemimeris, and sometimes 
at the ennehimeris. The trochaic caesura may take place 
in either of the first five feet of a verse, but two successive 
trochaics must not occur in the second and third, or in the 
third and fourth feet. The syllabic and monosyllabic 
caesuras are seldom introduced after the fourth -foot, but 
the trochaic often occurs at the ennehimeris, and generally 
conduces to the harmony of the line ; the caesura is not so 
frequently omitted at the penthemimeris as it is iu the other 



310 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

feet ; and when it is omitted in the third, it always occurs 
in the fourth, and generally in the second foot. When 
there is but one caesura in a verse, it is generally in the 
third foot, sometimes in the fourth, but never in the second. 
The elegance of hexameters is increased when each line 
through several successive verses is begun with one or more 
words, connected in sense with the preceding line ; when 
one word only is thus carried on to the next verse, it is 
mostly either a dactyl, or a polysyllable of sufficient length 
to complete the first foot, and leave a ccesura ; it is seldom 
or never a monosyllable only, and unless the word is re- 
markably emphatic, it is not often a spondee. A hexameter 
frequently ends in a dissyllable or trisyllable, but very 
seldom in a polysyllable ; a spondaic hexameter commonly 
ends in a polysyllable, sometimes in a trisyllable, and 
always has its fourth foot a dactyl. 

106. The acatalectic hexameter is used by the tragedians 
in systems of tetrameters, and sometimes separately. The 
lyric poets of the middle age, Alcman, Stesichorus, &c. 
used also heptameters catalectic on one and on two syllables, 
also octameters catalectic on one and on two syllables, the 
latter of which is probably the union of two tetrameters. 

107. Those verses are called Logawdics which commence 
with dactyls and end in trochees ; they are so called, 
because they appear to hold a middle station between song 
and common speech ; spondees are not admissible ; those 
terminated by two trochees are termed Alcaic. 

108. Pure dactyls preceded by a foot of two syllables 
(otherwise called abase), are called iEolics. 

109. Choriamlic Metre. 
A choriambus consists of two short syllables between two 
long ; of the latter the first is sometimes resolved into two 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 311 

short, the last seldom. Instances are very rare in which 
the two short syllables are contracted into one long, so that 
a molossus might stand for a choriambus, and this contrac- 
tion occurs only among the tragic poets. A choriambic 
verse sometimes begins with an iambic syzygy, as, TrifypiKa 
tclv || wXzaiol — kov. S. c. Tli. 7l 7, and generally ends with 
one, either complete or catalectic ; it also sometimes ends 
with a trochaic syzygy. An iambic syzygy may be substi- 
tuted for the choriambus in any place, according to Her- 
mann ; according to Brunck, with this restriction, " ut in 
secunda sede sit choriambus, si ultra dimetrum excrescit ; in 
alterutra vero, si sit dimeter ." The catalexis of choriambic 
verse is various ; the close is made very seldom indeed by 
the choriambus itself ; the most usual catalexis is the 
logacedic ; next, that which is made on two dactyls ; that 
which is made with a cretic is more rare ; the most rare of 
all that with a trochee ; that with an iambic or trochaic 
syzygy is more common. 

110. Monometer acatalectic; this is a choriambus, as, 
to jj.oX tyib. Hec. 1039. 

111. Monom. hypercat. or penthem. This contains a 
choriambus and a syllable ; it is the same that in dactylics 
was called an Adonic ; it may likewise be called an antis- 
pastic monometer, as, ravde yvval \ kcuv. Hec. 1053. 

112. Dim. brachycat. consists of a choriambus, and an 
iambus or spondee, as, aXtog av \ yaZft^ Hec. 634 ; we often 
meet with lines which might be referred to this, but which 
from their situation near antispastics, should more properly 
be called dochmiacs, or antispastic monom. hypercat. 

113. Dimeter cat. or hephthem. This is formed of a 
choriambus and a catalectic trochaic or iambic syzygy ; it 
may also be considered a logacedic, composed of a dactylic 



SI 2 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

monometer and a trochaic clipodia; in this point of view it 
occurs sometimes among the dramatic poets, repeated in 
systems, resolutions being rarely admitted. It is sometimes 
better to consider verses which have this form, as dochmiacs 
hypercatalectic ; the following are examples : — iropOfiov 
aifi | a> raXac, Hec. 1088. ^eljuaroc aX | Xo ju?l>(ap, Ag. 192. 
So in Horace, " Lydia, die per omnes. r ' 

114. Dim. acat. This, when pure, is formed of two cho- 
riambi ; as, a/uKJn kXaSoTc | i£o/xEva ] , Phoen. 1532 ; an 
iambic dipodia may be substituted for either. Hermann 
gives an instance, in which the choriambus is followed by a 
trochaic dipodia ; acatalectic dimeters occur in systems 
concluded with catalectic dimeters ; acat. dimeters, when 
the first syllable is cut off, resemble ionics a minore, and 
may easily be confounded with them, especially when verses 
of both kinds are conjoined. There is another form of the 
acat. dim. in which an antispast is used in either the first 
or second places ; when used in the first with a choriambus 
in the second, it is called a Gly conic Polyscliematutic ; those 
verses also get this name which are composed of a diiambus 
and choriambus, but why not refer them to dimeters acat. ? 
If a ditrochee precede it, we may consider it as used for 
the ionic a majore, and call the line Prosocliac. 

115. Dim. hypercat. as, rav o fityag \ fivOog ae% | til 
Soph. Aj. 226. 

116. Trim, brachycat. as, ttoXlov a^avtg \ cuQ^pog stS | 
wXov, Eur. Ph. 1559. This form consists of two choriambi, 
and an iambus or spondee. According to Hermann, an 
iambic dipodia may be substituted for either choriambus. 
Brunck's canon limits the use of the iambic dipodia to the 
first place. 

117. Trim, cat, This consists of two choriambi, and a 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. SIS 

catalectic iambic dipodia ; of course the iambic dipodia may 
be substituted for the first choriambus, as, av S 1 Ik juev ol \ 
K<jjv iraTpicov | i7r\evaag \ . Med. 431. 

118. Trim. acat. When pure, this contains three chori- 
■ambi, but the iambic dipodia is admissible ; as, vvv rV&aai 
j Tag trtpiQv \ fiovg Karapag | . S. c. Th. 721. 

119. Tetram. cat. as, a vtorag \ juol <ft\ov a\ | Oog to $e 
7% ] pag mil | , Here. F. 639. In this species, Anacreon 
has put a diiambus in the second place ; and if that were 
kept constantly pure, this verse might seem to be con- 
structed of two logacedics. 

120. Tetram. acat. is used by Anacreon, a choriambus 
and diiambus being put promiscuously, except that in the 
end there is always a diiambus. 

121. The later form only of tragedy appears to have 
used resolutions, as, rig ap vfxeval | 6g cia Aw | tov Atj3uoc. 
Eur. Iph. A. 1036. 

122. Choriambic verses are met with beginning with an 
miacrusis, i. e. a time or times forming a kind of introduc- 
tion or prelude to the numbers, which the ictus afterwards 
begins, as, vk j avSpog A\at \ ov OsoOtv | : S. c. Th. 313. 

123. A verse composed of an amphibrachys (or palim- 
bacchius), and choriambus is common, as, 7t5ju7to AT | 6g 
Wtm : Ag. 725. 

124. Horace has put a trochaic dipodia before chorianibi, 
and has chosen to make the last syllable of it always long, 
whereas it is probable, that among the Greeks it was 
doubtful. Od. i. 8. 

Te deos 6 | ro, Sybarin j cur properas ] amando | . 
The use of the choriambic metre is unfrequent among 
the Roman comedians ; some choriambic verses, however, 
are found in Plautus, and even in Terence. 



314 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

125. The most in use are choriambics with a base, which the 
ignorance of ancient metricians ranked amongst antispastic 
verses ; but if they were antispastic, they could never begin 
with a trochee or pyrrhic, and they would have the last 
syllable of each antispast doubtful. The Latin gramma- 
rians perceived the error. The JEolic lyrics alone ad- 
mitted even a pyrrhic in the base ; the comedians and the 
later tragedians ventured to put in the base even trisyllabic 
feet, the tribrach, anapaest, dactyl. 

126. The shortest of these verses has one choriambus ; 

VVV lv \ TTOLOVOIXOLQ. Suppl. 42. 

127. Next to that is the hypercatalectic, which is called 
Pherecratean ; as, S. c. Th. 282. tol p.lv \ yap ttotl irvp \ 
yovg ; grato Pyrrha sub antro. Hor. 

128. Then the Gluconic, which has a logacedic order ; as, 
" cui flavam religas comam." The latter tragedy admits a 
spondee in the end instead of an iambus, so that in antis- 
trophics a spondee may answer to an iambus ; generally, 
however, an iambus answers to an iambus, and a spondee 
to a spondee ; it also admits resolutions of either the first 
or last, or both first and last syllables of the choriambus, 
in both Glyconic and Pherecratean verse ; a trochee also is 
sometimes admitted at the end. 

129. The most in use is the Iii/percatalectio dimeter ; 
©i/S' ol/c | rpag yoov op \ viOog at] \ dovg. Aj. 628. Sophocles 
has used the Iracliycatalectic trimeter; aXX a \ poipidia \ 
rig Ivvamg J Sttva. Antig.'951. Also the trimeter Jiyperca- 
talectic ; aXXov | S 1 ovtlv cywy'' | olda kXviov \ ov$ 'iaidov 
J ixoipa. Phil. 681. 

130. Choriambic systems also are found beginning with a 
base, in which Molossi are admitted, to which in the antis- 
trophe Molossi and sometimes choriambi correspond. 



THE GBECIAN DRAMA. SI 5 

131. Horace has used many choriainbics with a base, 
always putting a spondee in the base, except I. 15, 24, 36. 

Teucer | et Sthenelus | potens 
Ignis | Iliacas | domos. 
In the first of these examples, however, the best editions 
read Teucer te> &c. ; and Bentley, Teucerque et ; in the 
second, Pergameas has been substituted for Iliacas on the 
authority of Mss. 

He also makes a caesura at the end of each choriambus, 
except the last ; as, 

Maece J nas atavis | edite re j gibus, 
Nullam, | Vare, sacra | vite prius | severis ar [ borem. 
Once only, and that in a compound word, he has neglected 
the caesura, viz. I. 18, 16 : 

Arcanique fides prodiga perlucidior vitro : 
Alcaeus and Theocritus were careless of such matters ; as, 

jurjSlv aXXo (pvTevayg wporspov SivSpwv afjnrtXw ; 
In this they have been followed by Catullus. 

132. The choriamhic metre, called polyschematist, or 
anomalous, seems not to be such in reality ; it consists of 
a choriambus, an iambic dipodia, a choriambus, and an 
amphibrachys or bacchee. Except disregard of the caesura, 
the comedians kept these numbers so pure, that they did 
not even put a spondee in the beginning of the iambic 
dipodia, nor did they admit resolutions ; as, 

"2ifjLa\ov el s Sov Iv %°P ( i\ twiS' i\ovja Ka\r)v. Anacreon. 

133. When any foot of four syllables, except the ionics 
and paeons, is united with a choriambus, the verse is called 
Epichoriambic ; as, 

UriTroT ui Sicr \ ttqiv Itt* tfibi | . Med. 632. 
Kat 0twv 7rcu | degfxaKapwv \ . Med. 821. 

Gaisford refers these to the Glyconic polyschematistic. The 



316 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



sapphic is a species of epichoriambic, consisting of a ditro- 
chee, or the second epitrite, a choriambus, and a bacchee ; 
as, 

Jam satis ter,ris nivis at que dirse 
Grandinis m^sit Pater ac, rubente 
Dextera sa,cras jacuia/tus arces 
Terruit urjbeni. 

Antispastic Metre. 
134. An antispast consists of an iambus and a trochee, 
(v^-|-^). To lessen the labor of composition, in the first 
part of the foot any variety of the iambus, in the second, 
any variety of the trochee, is admitted ; hence we get the 
following kinds of antispast : 



1 



Instead of an antispast, an iambic or trochaic syzygy is 
occasionally used ; these likewise may be represented by the 
different forms resulting from the union of their equivalents ; 
in other words, the diiambus may be represented by the 
various compositions of 



V- 



V- 

\J\J\J 



\J\J —\J\J 



And the ditrochee by those of 






\J\J\J 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



317 



The following scale then represents the varieties of the 
pure antispastic mon meter acatalectic. 



1. 


v— 


5 


. www 


— w 




9. -- 


-w 


2. 


\s- 


uw 0. C»cO 


wwvj 


10. 


www 


3. 


V- 


7. www 


-- 


11. -- 


-- 


4. 


V — 


ww- O. www 


Vv^- 


12. ~ 


ww- 




13. \j\j- 


-v 17. 


-w 


-w 






14. \j\j- 


www 18, 


-ww 


uuv 






15. v/w- 


19. 


— WW 


-- 






] 


6. ww- 


yO r 20. 


-WW 


ww- 





135. Burney calls those lines which contain iambic, or 
trochaic dipodise, impure antispasts. Hermann condemns 
the ancient metricians for having referred to antispastic 
numbers several species of verse which are not antispastic ; 
such as choriambics with a base ; a glyconean joined with 
a pherecratean ; a phalsecean, &e. &c. He excludes the 
iambic and trochaic syzygy, also the anapoest from the first 
part, as well as the dactyl from the second part of the an- 
tispast ; in fact, if all the varieties of antispast above- 
mentioned be admitted, there is scarcely any verse which 
may not become antispastic. Choriambics with a base are 
much more agreeable and smooth than antispastics. 

136. Antisp. monom. to ttotvi "Hpa' : w tyiX "A7ro\Aov : 
S. c. Th. 141, 147. In all antispastic verses, the prior 
arsis is oftener resolved than the posterior, which, being 
near the end, should be stiller. An antispastic verse rarely 
ends in an antispast. 

137. Antisp. dim. brachycat. tjioi \pr\v £uju | (jiofwv : 
Hec. 627. 

138. Antisp. dim. cat. This consists of two metres, the 
first acatalectic, the latter catalectic. It is likewise called 



318 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



pherecratean, but then there are restrictions of the varieties 
of the antispast ; Its second foot is a bacchius. 
Scale of Pherecratean. 



- VW 



Dim. cat. alwva Q'iXwq | hifxa : Agam. 238. Pherecratean. 
avpa wovtl | ag avpa : Hec. 444. Hermann refers this 
verse to the choriambic metre, with a base ; he scans 
the above line thus> avpa \ irovriag av \ pa : 

139. Dim. acat. This is formed of two antispasts; it is 
called glyconic, when it assumes any of the following forms, 
admitting in the second place only an iambic syzygy. 



— — — V/ 
-V/-V/ 



According to its commencement, it is called glyconic with 
an iambus, spondee, or trochee : Hermann considers this, 
also, as a choriambic with a base ; thus — 



KJ- 




\s 


-\J 


- w- 


\J~ 


VVVV 







Dim. acat. vofiov avofiov, 61 \ a rig ZovOa: Agam. 1111. 
Glyconic. l7nrev(javTog, \ ev ovpavta : Phoen. 219. 

140. Dte hyper. (Hipponactean.) This differs from 
the preceding only in having an additional final syllable. 
tfxol XP^ V W V I povav 7£vi(T | 0a7. Hec. 628. 

141. Trim, brachycat. This is formed of two antispasts, 
admitting all the varieties, and a half antispast ; rakalval 
tcl | Xaivaljcopai 1 typvyuv : Hec. 1046. It is called Praxil- 
lean. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 319 

142. Trim. cat. (Phalsecian, or hendecasyllable.) This 
differs from the preceding only in having an additional final 
syllable. Hermann considers it as a choriambic hendeca- 
syllabic : fyaaiv 'A m \ Bavbv yvag \ Xiwaivuv : Hec. 453, 
according to Hermann, fyaaiv \ ' AmSavdv \ yvag\nrai \ vuv. 

143. Trimeter, acat. (Alcmanic.) This is composed of 
three antispasts, which admit all the varieties. Burney, 
as he admits the diiambus to represent the antispast, refers 
to this species those iambic trimeters acat. which some- 
times occur interspersed through the choral odes, rig olcsv ; 
?i | tol Ottov lor | tl fxr) ipvOog : Ag. 462. Euripides appears 
to have used a trimeter in the Here. Fur. 919, followed by 
a verse composed of two dochmii : 

Aeyg, TLva TpoTrov j £<JVTo vzovtv \ £7rt [itAaupa Ka- 
-ica TciSt, rXrJiLiovag | ri itcudwv rvyag \ . 

144. In addition to these forms, Burney mentions the 
trim, hyper, tetram cat. and tetram. acat. which admit all the 
varieties ; but, as they very seldom occur, and scarcely ever 
where it is not better to alter them, we may safely neglect them. 

145. Among the tragedians chiefly, the antispastic is 
often associated with other numbers, mostly iambic and 
trochaic. Of these, the iambic are not such as proceed by 
dipodise, but of another kind, allied to antispastics : this 
kind, because it consists of shorter orders, and therefore 
admits a doubtful syllable even into those places from which 
it is excluded in dipodise, whence arises a broken and feeble 
movement, may be called ischiorrliogic iambics, (from \&yyg 
and priyvvfu), a term transferred to these from the Hippo- 
nactean trimeter, to which it was applied by grammarians. 

146. Dochmiacs are the kind of antispastics most in use ; 
a dochmius consists of an antispast and a long syllable 
(o--w-) ; therefore a simple dochmiac is the same as an 



320 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

antispastlc monom. hypercat. Otibv ij Otav. The scholiast 
of iEschylus calls these numbers pvOfibv oKrao-rj/zov, because 
they have eight times. The antispast admits all the va- 
rieties above mentioned, and the syllable is capable of 
resolution, except at the end of a system of dochmiacs. 

147. Dochmiac hypercat. This contains one syllable 
more than the preceding species, it is otherwise called 
antispastic dim. cat. It is usually heptasyllabic, particu- 
larly at the end of strophes, and the ante-penultimate is 
always short, ev TrpawiSuyv Xa | y6v \ ra. Ag. 371. 

148. Dochmiac dim. This is formed of two single 
dochmiacs united ; a pure dochmiac dim. is not of frequent 
occurrence ; the following are examples : — aKovfig j5o s Xav | 
aKovug rijivuv | : Med. 1270 : Suca kcu 0eo7 | olv ov ^vp,- 
ttitvh | : Hec. 1013. Other varieties of the dimeter 
dochmiac may be found in the chorus in ^Esch. S. c. Th. 
79, ed. Blomf. also in Hec. 681, 684, 688, 689, 690, 693, 
702, 703, 707, 708, 709. The dimeters do not always 
consist of separate dochmii, as appears from one of the 
examples given above. 

149. Dochmiac dim. hyper. This sometimes has only 
the former dochmiac hypercatalectic, sometimes only the 
latter, sometimes both ; as, 

a(p£fjTov (j)i\oi | mv \ dvaiarov ; a\ \ kcl S 1 | * Again. 1027. 

150. Dochmiacs are usually joined in systems running 
out in uninterrupted numbers, and generally with two 
dochmii comprehended in one verse ; hence, both a doubt- 
ful syllable and hiatus are excluded from the end of every 
dochmius, in the middle of the system, (except on certain 
conditions, which shall be mentioned) ; but a resolution of 
the last syllable is legitimate. There are thirty-two varia- 
tions of the dochmius. The conditions on which an hiatus 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 321 

and a short syllable for a long, are admitted at the end of 
a dochmins in the middle of a system, are, firstly, in inter- 
jections ; secondly, in vocative cases ; thirdly, in repetitions of 
the same word, either before or after the repetition ; fourthly, 
when the person is changed ; fifthly, on account of a proper 
name following ; and in all these cases by reason of the 
pause that is made in the recitation. But when a doubtful 
syllable or hiatus occurs in the end, we must often beware 
of believing several systems to be only one ; for since they 
do not use to have a catalexis, the end of a system can fre- 
quently be ascertained by nothing but the sense and punc- 
tuation. 

151. The final long syllable of the dochmius is often 
resolved into two short ; as, Karayz, Karayc, TrpoaW\ \ arpz- 
/uac, aTpe/mag WX : Eur. Or. 149. 

152. When in the dochmiac dim. the dochmius does not 
finish with a whole word, the word is so divided, that it 
may terminate either in the first syllable of the second 
dochmius, or the penultimate of the first ; and in the antis- 
trophic verses the same division as that in the strophic is 
for the most part observed ; even when long syllables are 
resolved, the first dochmius often ends in the first syllable 
of a word. 

153. Dochmiacs are found having a disyllabic anacrusis 
in the first foot, also, others having one in the last, to both 
of which species the antistrophic verses correspond. 

154. Dochmiacs are often augmented at the beginning, 
sometimes by merely one arsis, sometimes by one iambus, 
sometimes by two iambi, sometimes by an amphibrachys, 
sometimes by a ditrochee, which generally ends in a long 
syllable ; sometimes a ditrochee follows a dochmius ; some- 
times dochmiac and antispastic metres are united in one 

Y 



322 



HIE GKECIAN DTIAMA. 



verse ; often an iambic dimeter, or trimeter, is coupled with 
dochmii, sometimes so as to cohere with them in the same 
numbers, at other times so as not to cohere ; sometimes a 
bacchee is added at the end to either hypercatalectic, or 
common dochmii, the bacchee being, in fact, part of a 
dochmius. The cretic, either pure or resolved, and the first 
or fourth pa3on, which is a resolution of the cretic, some- 
times precede, and sometimes follow, dochmii ; a transition 
is often made from dactylic numbers to dochmiac, and 
usually in such a manner, that the dochmiac begin with a 
dactyl ; dactyls ending in an arsis often precede dochmiacs ; 
a spondee sometimes precedes a dochmiac, sometimes is 
inserted among dochmii. Two, three, four, or five short 
syllables sometimes precede a dochmiac, and sometimes 
are placed in the midst of dochmiacs: two short sylla- 
bles seem to be a resolution of a mere arsis, three of 
an iambus or trochee, four of a dactyl or amphibrachys, 
five of a cretic. To account for these short syllables, also 
for the consociation of the spondee, dactyl, &c. &c, with 
dochmiacs, recourse must be had to what musicians term 
%>aracataloge ; which seems to have been that kind of sing- 
ing, or chanting, which we now call recitative, and which, 
as it has a more lax contexture of numbers, is aptly ex- 
pressed, at one time by the uncertain tripping of these short 
syllables, at another by the slow relaxation of dochmiac 
numbers into a spondiac conclusion, at another by the un- 
steady movement of a dactyl, or trochee, before dochmiacs. 
155. Of the Latin poets Plautus only, and he but seldom, 
appears to have used dochmiac verses. 

156. Ionic a major e ( ~ - ^ ^) . 
An ionic verse a majore admits a trochaic syzygy promis- 
cuously with its proper foot, the second peeon into the first 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 3Zo 

place, and a molossus* into the second place of a trimeter 
whole or catalectic. The long* syllables may be resolved, 
and the final short syllable is common. When the defi- 
ciency of time in one foot is compensated by the redundancy 
of the following, an avaK\a>?ig is saidi jo take place, and 
the verse is called civc::^ixevog. Thus, when the second 
paeon is joined to the second or third epitrite, there is an 
avafcXactc, for they taken together are equal in time to two 
ionics a majore. 









WV W' 



If the three remaining paeons, or the second paeon, in any 
place but the first ; or, if an iambic syzygy, or an epitrite 
be found in the same verse with an ionic foot a majore, the 
verse is then termed epionic a majore. 

There is no instance of a pure ionic at the end of a verse, 
but it ends with -- or -^. 

157. Hermann makes the ionic foot a majore to consist 
of an arsis and a dactyl 1 | _.w ; he admits two trochees 
not cohering in one periodic order, ~w | -^, but excludes 
the second paeon from the first place ; he says, if several 
ionics a majore are in one verse, each should stand separate 
and independent, not having the numbers continuous ; for 
otherwise, they would be changed into choriambi, thus, 
_L | _L VW 1 1 j l W vy | - j -w would become - | -w- \ — w- ( 
-vy ; from this it came to pass, that in each ionic the last 
syllable was doubtful, which in choriambics ought to have a 
nxed and certain measure. The various resolutions of the 
ionic foot and of the trochaic syzygy produce twenty-eight 
forms ; but all these were not used. 

* The molossus is generally followed by a trochaic syzygy, which 
prevents the concurrence of too many long syllables. 



324 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

158. Monom. hypercat. or penthem. TTTwaoovai pv \ x<*>v; 
Hec. 1048. This might be scanned as an anapaestic mono- 
meter. 

159. Dim. brachycat. (Hipponactean). koI aCo(j>pova \ nu)~ 
\o7g; Phcen 182. 

160. Dim. cat. ij UaWZSog \ Iv iro\u. Hec. 465. This 
is called Cleomachean. 

161. Dim. acat. no Sov\o<jv \ vog rrpog olkov \ : Hec. 448. 

162. Dim. hypercat. vvv §' ovrog a | rural orvyc | ptoi 
Ajax. 1232. 

163. Trim, brachycat. (Praxillean). otKrpav /3To | rav 
t\ovaav | OLKolg: Hec. 456. 

164. Trim. acat. rav ov0' virvog \ alpu 7ro0' o \ iravTvyrj- 
pu>g : Antig. 614. This, according to Hermann, may be 
choriambic. 

165. Tetram. brachycat. (Sotadic), consists of three ionics 
and a trochee. This is the most noted of ionic verses ; it 
was constructed for recitation only, and not for song ; av 
Xpv<j6<l>oprjg tovto Tv^rjg lariv twappa. 

1 66. Among the Latins, Terentianus Maurus made ele- 
gant ionics ; Plautus, also, used them, and, as it seems, 
not only the sotadic, but other shorter. He put a molossus 
in the first place of the sotadic, and, what was not lawful to 
the Greeks, resolved the arsis of the last trochee. The 
Greek comedians, (and much less the tragedians), used not 
the sotadic verse. 

167. Ionic a minor e (v^--). 
An ionic verse a minore admits an iambic syzygy promis- 
cuously ; and begins sometimes with the third paeon, some- 
times with a molossus,* which is admitted in the odd places. 

* The molossus is preceded by an iambic syzygy, to prevent the con- 
currence of too many long syllables* 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 325 

Resolutions of the long syllable are allowed. When the 
second or third paeon is followed by the second epitrite, 
there is of course an avaKXaaig. The choruses in Euri- 
pides^s Bacchse are principally in this metre. It is once 
used by Horace in Od. iii. 12, " Miserarum est" &c. An 
epionic verse a minore is constituted by intermixing with 
the ionic foot, a trochaic syzygy, an epitrite, the second or 
fourth paeon, or the third in any place but the first. 

168. Hermann makes an ionic a minore foot to consist 
of an anapaest, and an arsis, ^/v- [ — ; each foot has its own 
separate numbers, and is not connected continuously with 
other feet, because they would otherwise run into choriambi ; 
thus yjyjL | _1 | kjkjL \ _ would become ^v/1 | -^v— | — ; to 
vary the numbers, two iambi are employed, the arsis being 
changed into one of them, and the following anapaest into 
the other, so that the times may remain the same, 






This method is termed avaK\a<TiQ, and the verses themselves 
avaicXwfjievot, because the change in the numbers is not 
made in one ionic foot, but in two, the end of the one and 
the beginning of the other being changed. 

169. The iEolic lyrics appear to have made these verses 
chiefly of pure ionic feet ; but the Ionic lyrics to have both 
used the anaclasis, and to have resolved the first arsis in it, 
and sometimes to have put in a molossus ; the dramatic 
poets took a middle course — the tragedians rather following 
the iEolians, the comedians the Ionians. The ionic a 
minore verse, unlike the majore, is often pure in the Greek 
plays. Timocreon, Sappho, Alcseus, and Alcman, wrote 
whole poems in ionics. 



326 THE GRECIAN DKAMA. 

1 70. Monom. hyjjoio&t. or penthem. juuXeag juarp | og : 
Hec. 185. 

171. Dim. cat. or hephthem. eXarag aKp \ okojuoI?. Phcen. 
1531. Burney, speaJdng of this metre, says, the first foot 
is pure and complete, admitting, however, the resolution of 
the long syllable ; in the latter place a molossus seems to 
be admitted, deficient by the last syllable, and of this foot 
either long syllable may be resolved, 



172. Dim. acat. irapaKX'ivovg* | tirticpavzv : Ag. 721. 

173. Dim. hypercat. Y.zpag \ijj \ pag airooOrj \ rov r : 
Med. 822. 

174. Trim, brachycat. STtdiQpev | ere MuprTAou | fyovov. 
Orest. 984. 

175. Trim. acat. /movat? ctiu) | va &a%ov \aa tov ail. 
Phcen. 1537. 

176. Tetram. cat. to ye ^v %ti \ via Sovaag \ Xvyog 
wairlp | Xeyera?. This species was used by Phrynicus the 
tragedian, and also by Phrynicus the comedian. 

177. The tragedians often made systems of ionic a rainore 
verses, employing the anaclasis in the end only either of the 
whole strophe, or of a part ; of all examples the most satis- 
factory is in .ZEsch. Suppl. 1025. 

178. Anacreontic verse is a species of ionic, of which 
there are two sorts, one with an iambic or monosyllabic 
anacrusis, the other with an anapsestic anacrusis. Galli- 
ambic verse is composed of two anacreontics, of which the 
last is catalectic. It was much used by Catullus, who gene- 
rally employed the anaclasis, and in the latter portion 
joined with the anaclasis a resolution of the second arsis. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



327 



179. Pceonlc metre. 
*A paeonic verse admits any foot of the same time as a 
paeon, i. e. any foot of Jim times, viz. : the four paeons, a cretic, 
a bacchius, a paHmbacchius, and a tribrach and pyrrhic 
jointly. The tragedians, however, do not use all the above ; 
of the parous, the first and fourth are found most constantly, 
(but never in the same verse), the first less so than the 
fourth ; the palimbacchius and the third paeon are very sel- 
dom found, even in comedy. The construction of the verse 
is most perfect (as also in anapaestic metre), when each 
metre en ds with a word. Some paeonics are constructed 
with an iambic, others with an anapaestic anacrusis. The 
catalexis is made on three syllables, on two, and on one. 

180. Most metricians regarding the measure only of cre- 
tic and bacchiac numbers, refer them to the paeonic kind ; 
for one long syllable joined to three short generates the 
four paeons, and by the contraction of two of these short 
syllables into one long, the cretic, bacchius and palimbac- 
chius are formed. Hermann considers them as distinct 
species, and assigns good reasons for doing so. 

181. Dim. brachycat. o^oya^oc | kvpu. Phcen. 137. Most 
examples of this might be better referred to dochmiacs. 

182. Dim. cat. xaAKoSera I t ZjufioXa. Phcen. 113. 

183. Dim. acat. SimyopiO' | ol^ojit^a. Orest. 179. 

184. Dim. hypercat. wapa ^[xovvt \ tolc. 6\Z \ tolq. Orest. 
799. 

185. Trim, bra chy cat. KaTafiooTpv | \oc opiiaoi | yopyog, 
Phcen. 146. 

* The alternate mixture of fourth paeon and bacchius constitutes 
the most harmonious paeonic verse. The first paeon is chiefly inter- 
mixed with cretics, being never found at the end of a verse. Those 
verses are harsh in which paeons of different sorts occur. 



328 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

186. Trim. cat. j3aXo7jut xp° I vcjJ <pvya§a \ /.uXtov. Phoen. 
169. 

187. Trim. acat. to Si koXujq | KTajxivov^ d> | fxiya vatijjv 
Ohoeph. 804. 

188. Tetram. catalectic on three syllables, w 7roXT (ft | \rj 
KiKpowog | avTotyvig \ Attlkt}. Arist. Vesp. 1275. This is 
chiefly found in comedy ; the last foot may be a dactyl or 
cretic. 

189. Pentam. cat. on three syllables : iravr ayaOa | Sf/ 
7£yov£V | avSpaaiv e \ fxrjg airo avv \ ovaiag. This has been 
used by Theopompus. 

190. Pseonics cat. on two syllables, and having an iam- 
bic anacrusis, are rarely met with. Aristophanes has some 
examples in Lysistr. 781. 

191. Hermann says, that resolutions of the arsis, though 
allowed in pseonic numbers, are seldom used, and, that no 
contraction of the thesis can be admitted without destruc- 
tion* of the pseonic numbers. He admits those only to be 
pseonics which are pure, and those, in which cretics are 
mixed, he calls cretics. 

192. Cretics. 
According to Hermann, a cretic is nothing but a catalec- 
tic trochaic dipodia, which consists of arsis, thesis, and arsis 
again ; and since this order is periodic, the thesis cannot be 
doubtful, but consists always and necessarily of one short 
syllable only ; each arsis may be resolved, whence it comes to 
pass, that both the first and fourth pseon, and even five 
short syllables may be put for the cretic. When several 
cretic feet are conjoined in one verse, no one coheres with 
another in a periodic order, and the last syllable of the last 
foot is doubtful, and cannot be resolved, except in systems, 
* By the introduction of a new arsis. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 329 

in which the last foot of the verses, unless it be the last of 
the whole system, is subject to the same law as each inter- 
mediate foot. Resolutions render the cretic so like paeons, 
that it cannot be distinguished from them except in that 
the paeons (not admitting a contraction of the thesis) are 
wholly averse to the cretic. And, in truth, the numbers of 
the two kinds are most different, for the paeons have only 
one arsis joined with a thesis of three short syllables, 
whereas cretics have an arsis on each side of one thesis of 
one syllable ; wherefore a paeon, which is truly a paeon, is 
very different from that paeon which is produced by resolu- 
tion of a cretic ; for the latter has, like the cretic itself, two 
elevations and a thesis of one time, the former one eleva- 
tion, and a thesis of three times ; besides, cretics do not 
cohere among themselves in periodic orders, whereas paeons 
always do, and that, for the most part, in dipodiae, after the 
manner of trochaic numbers. Wherefore it must be laid 
down that ail verses, in which a cretic is found mixed with 
paeons, are cretic verses, but, that such as consist of pure 
paeons, are either paeonic or may be so ; for the cretic, since 
it cannot be put for a paeon, is always an indication of 
numbers not paeonic, whereas a paeon, which can be put 
for a cretic, remains in itself ambiguous, whether it be in 
reality a paeon, or a resolution of a cretic. Cretics are used 
by lyric poets, tragedians and comedians ; the first paeons, 
a very lively kind of numbers, by the comedians principally ; 
the fourth paeons, which have great vehemence, chiefly by 
the tragedians. Since the cretic foot is by itself a catalec- 
tic order, cretic verses are mostly terminated by that same 
foot, and have no other catalexis ; some, however, are found 
terminated by a single trochee, and these may be called 
catalectic ; or by a trochaic dipodia, and these may be called 



330 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

hypercatalectic. Resolution is much more frequent in the 
second arsis of each foot, than in the first, which seems at- 
tributable to that confusion with pseonic numbers, which 
has been mentioned above : the resolution of each arsis is 
extremely uncommon. 

193. Dimeter cretics are very much used both in tragedy 
and comedy, and commonly conjoined in systems, so that 
the last syllable of the verses is neither doubtful, nor admits 
an hiatus, and may be resolved. In these systems a mono- 
meter too is assumed. 

(pOOVTlGOV 

kcu yzvou \ TravciKOjg 

tvatjSrjg \ irpb^vog' 

rav (pvyaSa \ jut) Trpobqg 

tciv EKaOev | ifcj3oAaIc 

SvvOzoig | bpjiivav. iEsch. suppl. 425. 
The antisystems mostly correspond in every foot, and reso- 
lutions are employed in the same places ; for the most part, 
also, of every two feet the first rather than the last is a pseon. 

194. Trim. acat. fivrianrij \ julwv irovog | /cat trap a — . 
Again. 173. 

vavg oniog \ irovrioig \ irdcrpLaaLv \ . Hec. 1063. 

195. Tetram. acat. {ulutso gj | ttotvio. j kXvOl vv/jl | <f>av 
afipav. used by Simmias. 

196. Hexam. cat. (Alcmanian). ' ArppoSl \ ra \x\v ouk | 
fart pap | yog S' "Epug | ola ircug \ iraiaSei. Ale. 

197. Cretics are found beginning with an iambic anacru- 
sis ; Sia §£ OvzWa oiracrai- Euiip. Sup. 830. Care must 
be taken not to confound these with dochmiacs preceded by 
an iambus ; those are to be accounted dochmiacs with an 
iambic anacrusis, which are so inserted in the midst of doch- 
miacs, that no doubt can be had about the numbers. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 331 

198. Oretics are used by the Roman dramatists, with the 
same license as to prosody as the rest of the metres ; hence 
they use a molossus for a cretic, as, u Aut solutds 'sinat, 
quds argento emerit." Plant. 

They mostly used the tetrameter, either acat. or cat., 
and often joined with it other numbers,, as the trochaic 
hypercat. monom., and that either by intermingling one or 
more of such verses with cretics, or by compounding verses 
of a cretic dimeter and that trochaic verse. Aristophanes 
had led the way. Ran. 1358. 

199. Bacchiacs, 
The ancient metricians referred bacchiac numbers to the 
pseonic kind, as having arisen from the contraction of the 
second or fourth paeon. Hermann, on account of the iam- 
bic anacrusis, has joined them with trochaic numbers, 
though in reality they are spondiac with an iambic anacru- 
sis ; for the numbers of the amphibrachys, if repeated, were 
displeasing on account of their too great weakness ; where- 
fore, to give them strength, they changed the trochee into 
a spondee. The palimbacchiac numbers are not much bet- 
ter. Both were used but seldom by the Greeks. Bacchiac 
dimeters, trimeters, and tetrameters are to be found ; but 
they might be all referred to dochmiacs hypercatalectic. 

Dim. airoGTa \ aa k\kjjj,ov | . Orest. 1439. 

Tetram. rig ayw, \ Tig ofym | irpoaiirTa \ fi a<j>zyy{ig | . 
Prom. 115. 

200. The Roman tragedians and comedians made great 
use of bacchiacs, sometimes continuing them in systems, 
sometimes inserting a dimeter in the midst of tetrameters, 
sometimes intermixing cretics, sometimes using catalectic 
bacchiacs, having the last foot an iambus. 



332 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

201. Versus Prosodiacus. 

This appellation is given to a verse in which choriambics are 
mixed with ionics, molossi, or paeons. It is so called, otl lv ralg 
topralg, lv cug npoaodoL lytvovTO, 70iovroig pirpotg lyguvro. 

Dim. acat. a <& Aivov | f)Xa<cara | . Orest. 1429. 

Dim. hypercat. [ioXirav 8' awo | kol xoooVot | wv. Hec. 
905. 

Trim, catal. Xaivtmg | Ap.<ftovog \ opyavotg \ . Orest. 114. 

Trim, hypercat. fuyaXa 81 | Tig dvvapjg | eT aXavTo \ pwv. 
Or. 1562. 

202. Polyschematistic Verses (woXv ayfipa). 

This name is given to verses in which there are irregular 
feet. The most remarkable species are the Glyconic and 
Pherecratean, which have been mentioned before. The 
Priapeian verse consists of a glyconic and pherecatean joined 
in one. The Eupolidean verse, peculiar to comedians, con- 
sists of a glyconic, having a choriambus in the end, and ano- 
ther like member, in which is a cretic instead of a choriam- 
bus. The Cratinean metre differs from the Eupolidean in the 
first portion only, in which it has a choriambus and an 
iambic dipodia. 
203. Versus Asynarteti, (a priv. et owaprau), connecto). 

Verses in which dissimilar species are united are so called. 
In these the coherence of language may be either continued 
unbroken, or interrupted by hiatus and the doubtful sylla- 
ble.* 

A verse of this kind, in which a trochaic syzygy is fol- 
lowed by an iambic syzygy, or vice versa, is termed period- 
icus. 

Troch. syz. + iamb. syz. dfiva Stiva j TritrovQaplv. Hec. 
1080. Periodic. 

* Hence they are also called u Seurinexi," half connected. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 333 

Troch. syz. + Iamb, penthem. IvOa ttqwto \ yovogri $o7 | 
v7£, Hec. 457. 

Troch. syz. + Iamb. dim. cat. (paaiv \ 'AttX \ Savov \ 
yvag | Xiiral \ vfiv. Hec. 453. 

Iamb. syz. + Troch. syz. ftoXoifxi rav \ ovoavov kcu. Or. 
971. Periodic. 

Iamb, monom. -f Troch. monom. hypercat. ir^pav \ Otyuv 
| t* wXe I vale, reic | vov. Phoen. 307. 

Iamb, monom. 4- Troch. ithyph. orparfj | XarCov \ EXXa | 
£oe 7ror' | ovtu)v. Or. 960. 

Iamb, monom. + Troch. dim. cat. nvpoj \ 0ev \% \ 'lXi | 
ov (ft | Xolat | 7rijU. Ag. 428. 

Iamb, monom. + Troch. dim. ej5ag \ tfiag | w irrt \ poixr- 
tra | yag Xo | x^jua. Phcen. 1033. 

Dactylic, penthem. + Iamb, penthem. iX0' zm \ Kovpov 
t ] fxolg | (fiXol | gl irav \ Twg. Or. 1292. 

Iamb, penth. -f- Dactyl, penth., called Iambelegns ; i] tu>v \ 
irapol | Qtv | tvy%vt \ tuv trt — pog. Phcen. 1525. 

Dactyl, dim. ■+• Anap. monom. cuXivov, dlXtvov \ ap\av 
Qavarov. Eur. Or. 1404. 

Dact. dim. + Troch. ithyphallic. 1} [xarpoKTuvov \ cupa 
X*~ioi OlaOat Or. 824. 

Anap. monom. + Iamb, penthem. tmcljivtov wg \ irecroifx' 
tg tvvav. Hec. 915. 

Iambic penth. + Anap. monom. Krvirrjat Koarci | fxeXtov 
xXayav. Or. 1471. 

Dact. + Troch. has been considered under the appella- 
tion of logacedic. 

Troch. monom. + Anap. monom. a70t/o afxirra \ jjievog 
ovpaindv. Hec. 1083. 

Anap. monom. + Troch. monom. Ovyariip AXog tv | wwa 
vlf46v. GEd, T, 198. 



834 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

Oretic. monom. -f Troch. penth. ovk *<j!>a | tlq &iovg j3porwv. 
Agam. 361. 

Troch. dipenthemimer. fxl^oirapOtvog \ dcuvov rtpag. 
Phcen. 1037. 

The following are instances of asynartete verses from 
Horace. 

l)act. tetram. 4- Troch. dim. brachycat. " Solvitur acris 
hyems grata vice | veris et Favoni." 

In this verse Horace abstains from the license of the 
doubtful syllable and hiatus. 

Dact. trim. cat. + Iamb. dim. " Scribere versiculos | 
amore perculsum gravi." 

In this verse the final syllable of the dactylic part is com- 
mon, and elision is sometimes neglected. 

Iamb. dim. + Dact. trim. cat. " Occasionem de die | dum- 
que virent genua." 

The same license occurs in this verse, which is the last 
reversed. 

Archilochus is said to have been the inventor of asynar- 
tete verses. 

Among the asynartete may be reckoned the Satumian 
verse, which was the only one used by the most ancient 
Homan poets ; in it both inscriptions and poems were writ- 
ten. Livius Andronicus translated the Odyssey in this 
metre, and in it Naevius wrote the first Punic war. It is 
composed of an iamb. dim. cat. and a troch. dim. brachycat. 
as, " Dabunt malum Metelll | Nsevlo poetee." The last of 
the Romans who used this metre was Varro in his satires. 

204. Concrete numbers are those which are so mixed, that 
the weaker precede the stronger, and in which, consequently, 
a new arsis takes place. The arsis of the posterior must 
be stronger than that of the anterior, because it must be 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. S35 

augmented with a new force for generating an order, which 
is greater than that order which it would otherwise have 
produced. There are two principal kinds of concrete num- 
bers ; the one increased from the dactylic kind to the 
pa?onic, the other from the trochaic to the spondiac. 

205. A system is a coherence of continuous numbers 
formed of connected verses. A strophe, numbers composed 
of verses however consociated. A system and a strophe, 
therefore, agree in both consisting of many verses ; they 
differ in this, that whereas in a system the verses are con- 
nected, and cohere in one continuity of numbers, in a strophe 
it is not necessary that they should be connected ; but they 
may be connected, or unconnected, or half connected, or 
partly connected, partly unconnected, partly half connected. 
If all are connected in one continuity, the strophe consists 
of one system, and diners not from a system ; hence it 
follows, that a strophe may contain several systems, but not 
a system, also, several strophes. Both every system and 
every strophe are to be finished with the whole of the voice ; 
but the verses contained in a system need not be finished 
with the whole of the voice ; those contained in a strophe 
ought, then only, to be finished with the voice itself, when 
they are unconnected. 

206. The kinds of strophes are four. The first, and most 
ancient, consisted of two verses, the one longer, the other 
shorter ; of these, the most ancient is the elegiac poem : the 
anterior verse was called irpo^dbg, the posterior tTnodog. 
The second kind of strophes is that used by the JEolic poets, 
Alcseus, Sappho, and among the Ionic poets by Anacreon. 
This is short, and ordinarily composed of four verses alike 
in numbers ; the poems of these authors being mostly mono- 
strophic. In the third kind of strophes there is a greater 



336 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

variety of numbers, and a more artificial composition ; more 
verses, than was before the custom, being joined in one stro- 
phe ; this kind was cultivated by Alcman, Stesichorus, &c. 
The fourth kind comprises those strophes, in which, because 
they were sung by choruses, the greatest art and variety, 
both of metres and of musical modulations, was employed ; 
such are the strophes of Pindar, Simonides, and the trage- 
dians : Pindar and Simonides generally made two strophes 
in the same metres, and a third, or epode, in a different 
metre, and continued the same succession in the same metres 
throughout the whole poem, in this manner : A-A.B. A.A.B. 
The tragedians rarely employed epodes, and commonly only 
one in the end of the song ; and they usually make only two 
strophes in the same metre; thus, A.A.B.B.r.r.A.A.E. 

When the words lircodbg and npowSog are applied to 
single verses, they are in the masculine gender ; when to 
several verses, in the feminine. 

207. The fourth kind of strophes was used in the more 
perfect lyric poetry, and in tragedy, for expressing the more 
serious and vehement emotions of mind. Its numbers have 
partly a severe grandeur and magnificence, partly a varied 
inequality and rapidity ; and both the grandeur and variety 
are perceived, not only in the nature of the numbers, for 
they are either slow and severe, or quick and brisk, but, 
also, in their proportional relations; for they are either 
equally divided, or short members are intermingled with 
long. Such strophes 'are usually long, and consist not so 
much of verses, as of systems having various numbers. There 
are three classes of them, the Doric, iEolic, and Lydian, 
so called from the harmony or music used for each. The 
Doric are grave in numbers, equal in the proportion of their 
members, and commonly consist of epitrites, tempered by 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 337 

dactylic numbers, and ere tic, some forms too of trochees, 
iambi, and antispasts being admitted. The iEolic are vehe- 
ment in their numbers, have their members unequal, and 
are remarkable for their multitude of short syllables ; the 
chief in this kind are dithyrambics. The Lydian hold a 
middle rank ; they have neither so much gravity as the 
Doric, nor so much briskness as the JEolic. 

208, Metricians divide poems with respect to repetitions of 
numbers into two kinds, which are called Kara gti^ov, and 
Kara avtirtyuia or avGr^fxariKa. Those Kara crri^ov are such as 
are composed of verses only, consisting throughout of one kind 
of metre, as the Iliad of Homer ; those Kara ovaTr\fia such 
as are composed of systems or strophes. When these kinds 
are so conjoined in one poem, that part is written Kara ori- 
\ov, and part Kara (ruarrj/xa, such poems are called julikto. 
yevtKcu as tragedies, and the ancient comedies ; and when 
they may be taken indifferently to be written either kclto. 
ari^ovf or Kara owrrjjua, they are called Koiva yzvuca, as 
many of the Anacreontic poems, . which may appear to be 
composed either of verses only, or of strophes. Those which 
are written Kara arlxov are divided into juiKta, which have 
different verses in different parts, as the comedies of Me- 
nander had, and afiiKra, which have the same kind of verses 
in every part, as epic poems. Of the (juorrijjuariKa there are 
six classes : 

1. Kara gx^iv, 2. airo\e\viuiha. 3. arctKTa. 4, 15 
Ojuoiwv. 5. fxtKTa. 6. KOtva. 

(1) Those Kara G\i<jiv are such as have corresponding 
systems, i. e. in which the same system is repeated. 

(2) 'ATroXzXvfiiva are those composed without any certain 
rule, in which the arrangement is arbitrary, depending on 
the fancy of the poet ; they are either avrpcxpa, consisting 



338 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

of certain metres alone, or GTpofyiKci, consisting of strophes. 
The a<jrpo(j>a comprehend iTrKpwvrjfiara, or exclamations, as 
$£u, \d) ; l(j>vfxvia^ which consist of certain words, as, 'Ift'e 
Ilatav ; these, when not in the end, but in the middle of a 
strophe, are called fie^vfivta ; and lirt^OeyfiaTtKa, such as 
have the length of a whole verse. The arpocjuKd are either 
fiovoaTpo^a or iroXvarpotya ; the fxovoaTpofya are such as 
consist of one strophe only ; if the length of these exceeds 
that of a strophe, and yet they cannot be divided into seve- 
ral strophes, they are then called arfxriTa ; the irokvaTpofya 
are such as consist of several strophes ; if they have dissi- 
milar strophes, they are called avojioioGTpo^a, if similar, 
7rapofxoL6(TTpo(j)a ; and of these the avofmoioaTpoQa, if they 
contain only two strophes, are called Jrepocrr/oo^a. 

(3) otokto consist of verses determinate indeed, but inter- 
mingled at pleasure, and without repetition ; the Margites of 
Homer was thus written. This whole species ought to have 
been ranked under the genus Kara arixov. 

(4) To !£ QfAoiuv also do not properly belong to this divi- 
sion, since in them the kind of metre, and not the relative 
parts of systems, is regarded. For this name is applied to 
those which run out without interruption, in one kind of 
foot or numbers, (i. e.) those usually called systems, as of 
Anapsests, Ionics, &c. They are either airspiopiGTa, which 
form one system of similar verses, or koto Trspiopivfiovc 
avieovQ, which consist of several systems of the same kind, 
but differing in length, as in the parodi of tragedies many 
anapaestic systems of different lengths occur; thus A.B.r. A.E. 

(5) juffcro are formed of different systematic kinds con- 
joined, such, e. g. as are partly Kara a^i^v, and partly 
airoXeXvfxeva. 

(6) Kotvo are those which may seem to be of one or ano- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 339 

ther kind indifferently, as Hor. Oarm, iii. 12., which to an 
unskilful person will seem to be t£ 6/xocwv, to a skilful one 
Kara vyiaiv. 

Of those called Kara axwv there are these species : 

(1) fiovcxTTpocpiKci, in which the same strophe is still re- 
peated once or more ; A. A. A. as frequently in lyric poetry ; 
or A. A. as frequently in the choral odes : when repeated but 
once, it is called avTiaTpofyiKov. 

(2) tirtodiKa, in which a dissimilar combination of verses 
is added to similar systems ; when at the end, they are 
£7r<i)diKa, properly so called, in this form A.A.B., which is 
called rpiag lirwdiKri ; or in this, A.A.A.B., which is called 
rerpag ; or in this, A. A. A.A.B., which is called irwrag ; of 
which the most in use is the rpiag : when at the beginning, 
irpoLodiKa ; when in the middle, ixzaq'&iKa ; when different at 
the beginning and end, TrepicgdiKa ; when similar, iraXiv 
wdiKa; thus, 

A.A.B. Epodica. A.B.A. Mesodica. B.A.A. Proodica. 
B.A.A.r. Periodica. B. A.A.B. Palinodica. 

Strophe. ~\ Strophe. } Epodus. } 

Antistrophe. >Epodica. Epodus. f Mesodica. Strophe. > Proodica- 



Epodus. J Antistrophe. ) Antistrophe. } 

Epodus. 1. -\ Strophe. "\ 

Strophe. ( peri0dica . Epodus. ( Palinodica . 

Antistrophe. ( Epodus. I 

Epodus. 2. J Antistrophe. J 

(3) Kara TnpiKoirr\v avouotojuejorj, in which after one series 
of systems, dissimilar to each other, another series follows, 
each respectively similar to each of the preceding species. 
A.B.r.A., A.B.r.A. 

(4) avri0£riKa\ where the first of a combination corres- 
ponds with the last, the second with the penultimate, and 
so forth. Hermann classes the avTiOtTucd under iraXiv^BiKa, 
which he says are then called avrSmm, when single verses, 



340 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

and not strophes, correspond to each other in that manner, 
as, a.j3.y.y.j3.a. 

(5) fxiKTct Kara cr\t(Tiv, in which some of the preceding 
species are conjoined, as epodic and mesodic, thus, A.B.A.r. 
or palinodic and mesodic, as, A.B.T.A.r.B.A. 

(6) Koiva tccnd axlaiy, which may, according to different 
divisions, be referred to different species; thus, those called 
Kara TrepiKOTTYiv avojuLoiojiJiipri, A.B.A.B. become fJiovoaTpoQiica 
F.r. by joining A.B. in one strophe P. 

There are none of these kinds of which there remain not 
many examples even now, but the most uncommon are the 
TSTpdg and irevrdg fVw&ja/. The most in use is the rptdg, 
as in the greatest part of the poems of Pindar and Shno- 
nides. The fuovovrpofyiKa were used chiefly in the poetry of 
the more ancient lyrics, who were followed by the Roman 
poets. Those lyrics wrote many poems, also, /cara an^ov, 
of which the shortest form is perhaps that which Sappho 
constructed of Adonic verses. Alcman joined two forms of 
monostrophic poetry in one poem ; to seven strophes of the 
same metre subjoining seven others in a different metre but 
all alike. 

The tragedians put, for the most part, in their choral 
songs, two strophes only in the same metre, then two others 
in a different metre, and so on. Sometimes they add to 
these one epode, either at the end or in the middle of the 
song; without an epode, thus, a.a.|3.j3.y,y.o.§., with an 
epode, thus, a.a.j3.j3.y.y.S.c5.£., or a.a./3.y.y.S.§. 

209. So much did the tragedians delight in the equal 
proportion and correspondence of parts, that they employed 
them even in the diverbia or dialogue, when such equality 
and counterbalancing of speech were not excluded by some 
vehement emotion of the mind. These colloquies are 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 341 

usually so disposed, that each person recites one verse ; and 
for the most part, to obviate the tiresomeness of equality, 
a speech of some length both introduces and concludes the 
dialogue, as Agam. v. 276 ; sometimes each person recites 
two verses, as Eumen. v. 714 ; sometimes one person has 
always one verse, and another always two, as Prometh. v. 
39 ; sometimes each person now pronounces two verses, now 
one, as CEdip. R. v. 543 ; &c. &c. &c. 

210. In the ancient comedy, the jparahasis, which is an 
address of the chorus to the spectators, is particularly re- 
markable ; a parabasis, which is entire, consists of seven 
parts, viz. KOfijianov, irapafiacnQ, fxaKpbv, aTpcHpr}, eTrippr^jua, 
avri(jTpo(f>OQ, avr^TTLppTi]}xa^ the three first of its parts being 
unequal, and the other four answering to one another alter- 
nately, in this manner : 

a. KOfifiaTiov. 

j3. irapafiamg. 

y. fxaKpov. 
E. arpo(pi]. 

£. lTTippK]f.ia. 

£. avTidTpofog. 
€. av-E7rippr]ixa. 

The first three parts, and the Imppmia and avr^ippriixa, 
are recited by the coryphaeus. 

The Kofjifianov is a song composed of dimeter, or tetra- 
meter anapaestics, not having antistrophes. 

The Ilapaf3a(Tig consists mostly of anapaestic tetrameters, 
though sometimes of another metre ; but is always composed 
Kara gt'ixov, i. e. in the same verse still repeated. 

The MctKpbv commonly consists of anapaestic dimeters, 
and is such, that it ought to be recited hirvsvar}, i. e. in one 
breath ; on which account it is also called Trvlyog. 



342 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

The Srpo^, which is also called ydi), is a song written 
in melic verses, to which, when the Imppnfia has been 
recited, the avTiaTpocpog, called also avrtydri, answers in the 
same metres. 

The "'Empp^fia consists usually of trochaic [tetrameters, 
which the coryphaeus recites when the strophe has been 
sung. To this, when the antistrophe has been sung, the 
avTzmppniia answers in the same number of verses of the 
same metre. 

Great diversity is found in the use of the parabasis ; for 
some comedies have none, as the Plutus ; others two, as the 
Nubes ; in some the parabasis is entire, as the Nubes, v. 
510 ; in others some of the parts are wanting. 

Other parts of comedies also, and those sometimes very 
long ones, have often a conformation like that of the para- 
basis, the parts answering to one another. 

211. The parodus and stasimum have been described 
before ; as the stasimum excludes anapaests and trochees, 
so also from the parodus, anapsests, trochees, and iambi are 
excluded, (since they are not sung by the chorus, but recited 
by the coryphaeus) ; they also have this in common, that 
they are antistrophic ; moreover, the strophe is followed 
immediately by the antistrophe, and the strophes differ from 
one another, thus, a.a.j3./3.y.y. The proodus seems not to 
have been used in either kind : the epode is not necessary. 
The parodus differs from the stasimum in the use of the 
epode ; for the stasima have no epode except at the end of 
the whole song, and it may be the same in the parodus, 
but the parodi have sometimes an epode in the middle. 

212. The duple and triple division of the chorus have 
been mentioned ; a quadruple division, also, may be ima- 
gined ; for either all was sung by the whole chorus, or all 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA* 343 

by parts of the chorus, or parts of the chorus sang the stro- 
phes, and the whole chorus the epode, or the whole chorus 
the strophes, and part of the chorus the epode ; but the 
chorus was often divided into a still greater number of parts ; 
nay, sometimes even every one of fifteen singers sang sepa- 
rately, as in the parodus in the Sept. ad Theb. 

213. What the distribution of the chorus in each passage 
was, may be collected, either from the subject, according as 
it is suited either to the whole or to a part ; or from the 
disposition of the strophes, thus, when an epode occurs in 
the middle of the parodus, it would seem that the chorus, 
being at first divided into separate parts, began by singing 
strophes, antistrophes, and an epode ; and afterwards, when 
collected into one body, other strophes, which may truly be 
called the parodus of the whole chorus ; or, lastly, from the 
numbers, a change in the numbers betokening a change in 
the disposition of the chorus. 

214. Besides the parodus and stasima, other songs, also, 
of the chorus occur, by which tragedies are sometimes con- 
cluded ; these resemble the parodus more than the stasima, 
they consist of antistrophics, and are sung by parts of the 
chorus. Sometimes both the tragedians and comedians 
employ another kind of song consisting of one strophe, the 
antistrophe of which follows not immediately, but after some 
verses of the actors, and occasionally after the intervention 
of a considerable part of the play. Such strophes are some- 
times longer, as in the Philoct. v. 391 and 507 ; sometimes 
shorter, composed for the most part of dochmiacs, as in 
Sept. ad Theb. ; they were sung by parts of, and not by 
the whole chorus. 

215. In tragedy the song of the chorus very seldom con- 
sists of a solitary strophe, without any antistrophe^ and 



344 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

never, except upon occasion of some unusual commotion of 

mind, as in the Trachin. v. 205 ; this song was sung by parts 

only of the chorus. Those songs also were sung by parts of 

the chorus, in which each antistrophe does not follow its own 

strophe ; but the disposition of the antistrophics is more 

artificial, as in the Choep. v. 781, where the order of the 

strophes is this : 

a. j3. a. y. fieaofiog. y. 8. ]3. 8. 

216. That artificial copulation of strophes, on which the 
dramatists bestowed such wonderful pains, is peculiar to 
those songs, which are sung either by the actors alone, and 
which are called to, airo crKrjvTjc ; or which are divided be- 
tween the actors and chorus, called ko/*/xoi ; or which are 
sung by certain parts alternately of the chorus alone. The 
rd airb aicrivriQ are sometimes a7ro\e\vfiha t but more fre- 
quently antistrophics artificially disposed. It is seldom that 
the chorus alone, divided into parts, has the antistrophics 
involved in an artificial order. 

217. The following canon is generally observed by JEschy- 
lus and Sophocles, more accurately by Euripides, viz. : 
when the third foot of the tragic senarius* is contained in 
one word, and the verse is at the same time divisible into two 
equal hemistichs, the second hemistich for the most part is 
either preceded by an elision, or begins with a word which 
cannot begin a verse; as av, yap, Si, jutev, and all enclitics. 
This rule applies not only to those cases, in which the third 
foot is an entire word, or part of a word, in the strictest 
sense, but also to those in which it is composed of two par- 
ticles, which, on account of their frequent union, are com- 
monly represented as one word ; such are drjirov, zlwep, kuitoi, 

* Lyric senarii are not taken into account ; in these the canon is 
less generally observed. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 845 

offne, Toiydp, Toivvv, &c. &c. The following are instances 
of this canon : 

Elg raade yap fiXixpaa \ lTrr)viafxr]v rctSe. Suppl. 8. 

"EvtGTi <rvyyvu)firjv | $£ rwS' e\ eLV XP^ V ' Suppl. 251. 
In the fourteen tragedies of Sophocles and iEschylus, this 
canon is violated more than thrice as often as in the seven- 
teen tragedies of Euripides. 

218. The following canons are given by Dawes : 

(1) A short vowel before either the soft mutes ir, k, r, 
or the aspirates, #, %, #, followed by any liquid ; as also, 
before the middle mutes j3, 7, S, followed by p, always closes 
a short syllable, that is, remains short. 

(2) A short vowel before the middle mutes j3, 7, S, fol- 
lowed by any liquid except p, always closes a long syllable. 

(3) It is peculiar to the Attic speech, always to impart 
the force of a double consonant to words, which, as they are 
at present written, begin with p. Monk limits the applica- 
tion of the third rule to those cases in which the syllable 
preceding p is in ictu. 

The first of these rules Dawes meant to apply to the 
comic poets, the second both to the comic and tragic. The 
third expresses the usage of the Attics in general. Porson 
perceived that Dawes' rules, though general, were not uni- 
versal. He himself says, that a short vowel before a mute 
and liquid, though seldom lengthened, is most frequently so 
in uncompounded words, as, riieyov ; much more rarely in a 
compound word, if the short vowel terminate the first part, 
as, Tro\v\pv(Tog ; equally seldom lengthened in augments, 
as, s7T£k:Agj(7£v ; still more rarely where a preposition is joined 
to a verb, as, a-rrorpoTToi. To these canons, also, there are 
many exceptions. Dunbar explains both Dawes' and Por- 
son's canons, and their exceptions, by the ictus. The 



346 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



following are his conclusions from a deduction of several 
examples : 

(1) In iambic verse the Attic poets never lengthened a 
short vowel before the mutes and liquids, with the exception 
of /3A, yA, jju, yv, Sju, $v,* unless they formed the second 
syllable of the foot, when the harmony of the verse required 
the vowel to be pronounced with a lengthened tone, as, 
'AAA 1 ev Trfrpoiai 7TETpov zKTplfiwv juloXiC' Soph. Phil. 297. 
This principle can be extended to the doubtful vowels in 
certain words, when unsupported by mutes and liquids; 
thus, the i in larpbg, the A in "Aprtg, the a in dti, the a in 
the accusative: of such nouns as /3a<nAa>c, are short or long, 
according as they occur in the first or last syllable of an 
iambus. Several prosodians have observed that a short 
vowel in iambic verse is sometimes lengthened before tho 
inceptive*}* />, because the pronunciation of that letter seems 
to retard the sound of the vowel ; there are, however, seve- 
ral examples in which p has no such power, when a short 
vowel precedes it in the first syllable of the foot. The ictus 
metricus affords the true solution of the difficulty. Dawes 1 
first rule was intended to apply to the comic poets alone ; 
it is, however, violated by them also, though not so fre- 
quently as by the tragic poets. The ictus affords the solution 

* The Greek poets almost universally lengthened a short vowel 
before these mutes and liquids ; the few exceptions may be remedied 
by transposition of the words. 

f If the inceptive p has this power, p should also have it in compound 
words, in which, however, they inconsistenly double the p , as nrtpippvrov ; 
they similarly err in inserting a sigma in such words as QovkofAtoba, inas- 
much as the Greeks particularly exclude from before consonants the 
hissing sound of sigma ; thus they wrote <ro<puTi?os for copi<mpot ; so also 
Euripides was ridiculed for this line, 'E*w* 8' <S$ foewn 'E>xfauv foot. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 347 

in both cases. The natural quantity of the short vowels is 
more frequently preserved in comedy, both in consequence 
of the less solemn and stately nature of its language, and 
because the comic poets were less restrained in the use of 
the tribrach, dactyl, and anapsest, which enabled them to 
bring the tone of their language nearer to that of varied 
and genteel conversation. There is a singular instance of 
the power of the ictus in a curious line of the Plutus of 
Aristophanes, viz. : 

vv\vv\vv\vv\vv\vv. 
Also another in his Equites, viz. : 

flV fXV | fJLV LIV | LIV LIV | LIV fXV | fJLV LIV | LIV LIV \ . 

(2) In trochaic verse the first syllable of the trochee re- 
quires to be pronounced with a lengthened tone, whether 
that syllable be naturally short, or whether it consist of a 
short vowel before any of the mutes and liquids. The Attic 
poets, however, applied this power of the ictus more spar- 
ingly in trochaic than in iambic verse, and only resorted to 
it when the versification compelled them. They seldom 
used it except in the following words, naTpog, oicvog, juaicpoQ, 
TtKvov, daicpv, 6)(\oq, 7T£7rXoc. The same violation of the 
orthography of the language, arising from ignorance of the 
power of the ictus, is found in trochaic as well as in iambic 
verse. 

(-3) In anapoestic verse (which derives its origin from the 
hexameter), the ictus has the same power in lengthening 
the last syllable of the anapaest, and the first of the dactyl 
and spondee, when otherwise they would be short. 

Dunbar s observations on the ictus, and the rules he has 
established thereon, though they may seem at first sight to 
account for a few anomalies only, really comprehend some 
of the fundamental principles of criticism on poetry both 



348 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

ancient and modern. They not only show in what the har- 
mony of the versification consists, but become the safeguards 
of the language itself, by clearing it of all those useless ad- 
ditional letters, which deform its beauty and simplicity, and 
by making the practice of the ancients themselves, not the 
fluctuating opinions of the moderns, our guides and in- 
structors in examining and imitating their works. 

219. On syllabic quantity, and on its differences in heroic 
and dramatic verse. 

(1) By syllabic quantity is here meant the quantity of a 
syllable under these circumstances : the vowel, being un- 
questionably short, precedes a pair of consonants of such a 
nature, that it may anywhere be pronounced either distinctly 
apart from them, or in combination with the first of the 
two. If the vowel be pronounced apart from those conso- 
nants, as in Tre-rpag, that syllable is said to be short by 
nature ; if in combination with the first of those consonants, 
as in 7rf r-joac, the syllable is then said to be long by position. 

(2) The subjoined list comprises all the pairs of conso- 
nants which may begin a word, and also permit a short vowel 
within the same word to form a short syllable. 

i. wp, KjO, rp : <j>p, XP> @P : /3j°5 yp-> fy>. ii. tX, kX, rX : 
(p\, xX, OX. hi. ?ry, kv : y(y, Ov. iv. Tfx. 

The only remaining pairs, j3X, yX : Efi : and fiv, which are 
at once initial, and in a very few cases permissive, may, on 
account of that rarity, be passed over for the present. But 
the following pairs, Kfi : ^ju, fy* : Tv: $ v -> though not initial, 
yet within the same word are permissive. 

(3) More than twenty other combinations of consonants, 
(along with £, £, i//), though qualified to be initial, are 
foreign to the purpose, as never being permissive also ; these 
combinations may be called non-permissive, and for this 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 349 

reason, that neither within the same word, nor between one 
word and another, (of verse at least) do they permit a pre- 
ceding short vowel to be pronounced distinctly apart : 
it seems to be coupled with them always by an irresistible 
attraction. 

(4) The difference of syllabic quantity in heroic and dra- 
matic verse, may be seen from a comparison of Aristophanes 
and Homer. Homer seldom allows a short vowel to form a 
short syllable before any of those permissive pairs just de- 
tailed, and only before some few of them ; and such concep- 
tions within the same word are more uncommon than 
between one word and another. Aristophanes (with very few 
exceptions in anap?estic verse), never allows a short vowel 
cum ictu to form a long syllable with any permissive pair, 
even within the same word. Homer, on the other hand, 
not only in the same word cum ictu, but in the same word 
extra ictum, and even between two words in the same debilis 
2)ositio> makes the syllable long. A. 345, H. ]89. Even the 
loose vowel of the augment, when it precedes 7rX, kA, k/j, r/>, 
&c. initial of the verb, not only cum ictu, but even extra ictum, 
he makes to form a long syllable. A. 46, 309. No dissylla- 
bic word like irarpbg, tekvov, &c, which can have the first 
syllable long, is ever found with it otherwise in Homer ; in 
Aristophanes those first syllables are constantly shortened. 
In a word, in Homer, whatever can be long is very seldom 
short ; in Aristophanes, whatever can be short is never 
found long. 

(5) If we compare the syllabic quantity in comedy and 
tragedy, it will appear, that Aristophanes, even in the same 
word, and where the ictus might be available, never makes 
a long syllable ; Euripides, who excludes the prolongation 
even cum ictu between one word and another, within the 



350 THE QRECIAN DRAMA. 

same word readily allows it. In Euripides, even those dis- 
syllabic words tIkvqV) &c, wherever, from its position, the 
syllable is decisively long or short, exhibit that syllable 
thrice short to one case of long. The prolongation of the 
augment, or of a short vowel in a compound word before a 
mute and liquid, though not altogether avoided, is exceed- 
ingly rare in Euripides. 

One great cause of the many mistakes about syllabic 
quantity seems to be involved in that false position of S. 
Clarke's, (ad II. B. 537), that a short vowel preceding any 
two consonants with which a syllable can be commenced, 
may form a short syllable. Dawes was the first who im- 
proved this department of prosody ; Porson followed up his 
improvement, and Dunbar still farther, as appears from 
last section. 

220. The tragic writers in iambic, trochaic, and ana- 
paestic verse, never admit irepl before a vowel, either in the 
same, or in different words. 

221. The Doric dialect is occasionally used in anapaestic 
verse. 

222. 0\arbg is always a dissyllable with the Attics : Otbg- 
/ur) ov-?j ov, are mostly monosyllables. 



CHAPTER VII. 



SECTION L 



1. The poetry of the Greeks was adapted either to singing 
or recitation ; the construction of their verses informs us 
of the numbers which they made use of in the latter ; but 
much doubt exists whether they observed the same law in 
the former, or introduced a different style of numbers suited 
to the diversity of modes that constituted their harmony. 
It appears by no means improbable, that modulation in- 
fluenced very much the numbers of the verse ; as we find 
from Plutarch's Treatise " Be Musical chapters 23, 28, 
that feet of a particular rhythm were invented to suit each 
harmony, according as it was introduced. No persuasion, 
however, as to the matter of fact, can be of much avail, 
unless we knew in what particular verses this took place ; 
as also, when, on what condition, and in what manner it 
did so, points concerning which we cannot arrive at any 
certain information in consequence of our sources of know- 
ledge being so few, and of the acquaintance we possess with 
the musical rhythms of any collection of verses extant, being 
so extremely imperfect, We know that epic poetry was 



852 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. * 

connected very closely with the science of music during the 
period that the poetry of the Greeks was developed in its 
several forms, but it has unfortunately happened, that the 
writers who have come down to our times, and have treated 
of the elements of harmony, have left untouched those parts 
of their subject, an accjuantance with which would have 
been of essential service to us, viz. : the rhythmopceia and 
the melopceia, or the doctrine of rhythm, and the science of 
modulation. In consequence of this omission, we know 
scarcely any thing more than this, that the first of the doc- 
trines above-mentioned was essentially distinct from the 
science of metres — that rhythm appertained to music and 
singing, metres to poetry. We are left, therefore, very 
much to ourselves in forming our estimate of number, or 
indeed any conception of what it consisted in ; the chief 
origin of which difficulty is mainly attributable to this, that 
the grammarians considered metre alone without reference 
to number, and in their elucidation of it adopted the mode 
of measuring verses, as far as it could be done, by repeti- 
tions of the same foot. Hermann, in treating of this sub- 
ject, makes use of a comparison to express his sense of so 
preposterous a mode of proceeding ; he looks upon orders as 
being to verse what members are to the human body, and 
accordingly he asserts, that we might as well hope to derive 
our knowledge of the constitution of that body from an ac- 
count of its stature, as seek to understand the nature of 
verse by a resolution of it into feet of three or four syllables. 
Bentley was among the first to perceive the inadequacy 
of the method in use among the grammarians, and in his 
Treatise on the Terentian Metres laid down his views on 
the subject with much clearness and precision, contenting 
himself, however, with little more than barely hinting at the 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 353 

rhythmical doctrine. Brunck also paid attention to the doc- 
trine of numbers, to the neglect, in a great measure, of the 
older guides. Hermann, Porson, Gaisford, and Seidler, 
have largely contributed to the advancement of Greek 
learning in this, as well as in other departments. Hermann's 
efforts are directed throughout to a restoration of what he 
conceives to have been the primary basis of Greek versifica- 
tion, viz. : the doctrine of number or rhythm, to which he 
considers that of times and feet— ^prominent parts in the 
old metrical systems — -as subordinate. This he regards as 
two-fold, namely, in detached words, as well as in assem- 
blages of words, constituting whole verses or clauses ; and 
the chief artifice in versification he conceives to be the as- 
sociation of these two in a consistent union and harmony. 
This introduces, as is evident, a new species of scansion into 
metrical combinations, and one to which it is most impor- 
tant to students of Greek composition to attend, as it will 
save them from degenerating into mere servile copyists of 
long and short quantities, and thus producing verses, which 
present any thing but the character of those after which 
they profess to be modelled. We pass from these prelimi- 
nary notices to the analysis of Hermann's Treatise, which 
is intituled " The Elements of the Doctrine or Science of 
Metres." 

2. Metre is a series of syllables which has rliythm or nam- 
lers. Numbers are a fitly disposed succession of times-* 
To this, in space, symmetry answers, which is a fitly dis- 
posed continuity of spaces. ■ So that to numbers times and 
their succession are proper ; to symmetry, spaces and their 
continuity. To both order is common, which is an arrange- 
ment made according to some law. 

3. That law must necessarily be objective not subjective ; 

A A 



354 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

formal, not material ; innate, not empirical ; it must be 
objective, i. e. founded in the very nature of succession and 
continuity ; because a subjective law, i. e. one depending on 
the perception of observers, could not, since it would be in- 
consistent with itself, be even accounted a law ; it must be 
formal, i. e. apparent in the times and spaces only ; not ma- 
terial, or founded in the things themselves which succeed 
one another, or which are comprehended in continuity of 
place, as in sounds or bodies ; because in rhythm and sym- 
metry, what is regarded is, not the things themselves which 
succeed one another, or are conjoined, but, by what law 
they succeed one another, or are conjoined ; lastly, it must 
be innate in us, i. e. denned and certain a priori ; because 
it is known, not by being learnt, but of itself ; for were it 
empirical, i. e. made by any one, it would be known only to 
those who had learned it, and might be both altered and 
abrogated. 

4. The objective cause of succession is efficiency ; the ob- 
jective cause of continuity is coherence ; rhythm, therefore, 
or numbers, is a series of causes and effects, or, an image of 
efficiency represented by times ; symmetry is a series of cohe- 
rent parts, or, an image of coherence represented by spaces ; 
but no image of efficiency, or of coherence, can appear ex- 
pressed in the times and spaces themselves, except in times 
and spaces disposed in that proportion which subsists either 
between causes and effects, or between parts conjoined by 
coherence. Now, that proportion depends on equality, for 
cause is equal to effect, and coherent parts of space com- 
pose the whole ; numbers, therefore, are efficiency represented 
by equality of times, and symmetry is coherence expressed by 
equality of spaces. The universal nature of numbers and 
symmetry being thus defined, when we speak of particular 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 355 

numbers and symmetrical figures, numbers are an image of 
a series of effects, expressed by equality of times ; and symme- 
try an image of a series of coherent parts, expressed by 
equality of spaces. 

5. From this definition of number, the following infer- 
ences are deduced : first, that its primary law is equality of 
times ; secondly, that number cannot be said, in its abstract 
meaning, to have either beginning or end, inasmuch as no 
cause can be assigned as being the first, nor any effect as 
the last ; thirdly, that it admits of both in a relative sense, 
inasmuch as experience teaches us, that in the series of 
effects of which number is the representation, in the same 
manner as in figures, something absolute and complete in 
its nature exists, which circumscribes each within certain 
limits, signifying in number an end and a beginning, as in 
the descriptions of space, that there is neither deficiency 
nor excess. 

Now whatever produces change in, or defines, such a 
series in number and description in figures, by being super- 
added thereto, must be accounted absolute, that is, the 
first cause of change in time, and the rule of the constitu- 
tion of boundaries in space. But if any absolute cause is 
found in numbers, it must of necessity be one which appears 
as a cause only, and not as an effect also. Now a cause, 
which is a cause only, is nothing else than a force effecting 
somewhat. An absolute cause, therefore, in numbers, must 
be contained in the expression of some force which may 
begin some series of times. And that, by which such force 
is expressed, cannot but consist in a stronger notation, or 
marking of some one time ; and this is called the ictus. 
The ictus, then, is a greater force in marking some one 
time, and indicating the absolute cause of a series of times. 



356 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

Again, the absolute part in symmetry is the centre., or that 
point which in any figure is common to all the parts, and 
this from the circumstance of its defining these parts, but 
not being defined by them in turn. 

6. An absolute cause is then the beginning of rhythm or 
numbers ; an absolute part the middle of symmetrical 
figure ; but the end of numbers, and the bounds of figure, 
cannot be defined by notions taken from the nature itself 
of numbers and of symmetry, because they are wholly mat- 
ters of experience. There are, however, two kinds both of 
numbers and of symmetrical figures, the one simple, as in 
numbers the following, ^^, w vv vuvu ; (which consists of 
a homogeneous series of times, the first of which is ictuated, 
and which presents no iteration > excepting that of the simple 
times), in symmetrical figures, a circle, a square: the other 
compounded of an iteration of the same numbers or figure ; as 
in numbers the following, -Uy-w | — w-^/ | -v/-^ j — v/-v | ; 
(which is measured by dipodes), in figures, the interchanges 
of pyramids, columns, trees, disposed according to certain 
proportions. In all these an empirical or arbitrary rule is 
perceived, one part being taken as a model or prescript. 
Whence, if the last part be dissimilar, somewhat is thought 
in one case to be deficient, in another case to be redundant. 

7. That time in which the ictus is, Hermann, after the 
example of Bentley, calls the arsis, and those times, which 
are without the ictus, the thesis. The ictus, which is a 
mark or indication of an absolute cause, may take place 
even in a series already commenced, as Ovv, When this 
happens, that time in which is the ictus, is accounted, be- 
cause of its coherence with the preceding time, to be pro- 
duced from that time, and so far forth is without ictus, and 
is a thetical time ; but the same time, by the accession of 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 357 

an absolute force, of which the ictus is the indication, be- 
comes an arsis as well, and the cause and beginning of the 
following times ; in the same manner as when a body in 
motion is driven by a new force, that force does not origi- 
nate the motion, but increases the motion already origi- 
nated. Now the time, or times, which precede the arsis, 
are evidently parts of a series infinite from its beginning. 
Those times Hermann calls anacrusis, a term borrowed from 
the ancient music, because they are, as it were, a kind of 
introduction, or prelude, to the numbers which the ictus 
afterwards begins, as the introductory chant was to the 
regular harmony. After the same manner, among figures 
some may be marked which are not bounded on either side 
by any lines, and are therefore infinite. Further, the ana- 
crusis has the nature of a thesis, i. e. a time produced not 
from an absolute cause, but from other preceding times. 
For it is to be assumed, that other times have preceded, 
since, not being produced from an absolute cause, it must 
necessarily have been produced from other causes preceding 
it in infinitum. But when we say, that times sure produced 
from times, we so speak for the sake of brevity, transferring 
an expression from causes and effects to times, which are 
the images of them. 

8. Numbers are either unlimited, consisting wholly of 
thetical times, which kind of numbers, because it wants 
variety, is not used in arts which employ numbers : or 
limited, being those which have arsis, and which have, 
therefore, a beginning and an end. This latter kind of num- 
bers we call an order. Orders are either simple, which con- 
sist either of arsis alone, as i, or of both arsis and thesis, 
^w, lw ; or periodic, which are composed of several orders 
comprised in one rhythm, or number, i. e. produced from 



358 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

one common cause. For as in a succession of single times, 
so also in a succession of whole orders, the series of causes 
and effects can be represented without transgression of the 
law of equality, so that, as in simple orders single times are 
equal to one another, in periodic orders the orders them- 
selves may be equal to one another, as v..^, w v, ^vw, wv/vfi 
9. As the arsis is distinguished from the thesis by a 
greater force, indicating the absolute cause, so, also, the 
first arsis of periodic orders, as containing the absolute 
cause of every following arsis, is stronger than they ; for each 
following arsis is absolute with respect to that order, or 
those orders which proceed from it, but not absolute with 
respect to the preceding arsis, whereof it is itself an effect. 
This is the fundamental law in periodical orders. Hence it 
comes to pass, that the arsis may effect some change in the 
order of which it is itself the commencement, and that 
order, as far as it depends on its own arsis, is exempt from 
the law of equality which has been mentioned. Now that 
force may refrain or express itself, and then we call the 
orders diminished ; as ^^w, ^wiv : of which kind are 
those termed catalectic and logaoedic. In these the arsis, 
which changes the condition of the orders, although it is 
not stronger than the first arsis, nor can be stronger, as 
being produced from it, nevertheless could not even refrain 
itself without some peculiar effort of resistance. Hence, 
whoever observes attentively will easily perceive, that the 
arsis of periodic orders, which changes the condition of 
these orders, is, although not stronger, yet endowed with a 
peculiar force, as the last arsis in these numbers ~v^-w- 
-lv/v-vv/-v/, and the third in this -^vy-w^-v-^. 

10. The force of the arsis in periodic orders may increase 
also ; but when this happens, that arsis which is stronger 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 359 

than the preceding, and generates from itself a greater 
order, is nothing but a new absolute cause, and not pro- 
duced from a preceding arsis, falling upon the secondary 
arsis of the foregoing order ; in this manner, 



by the conjunction of which orders the following rhythm is 
produced, -Lviw ; which evident!}' cannot be altered with- 
out giving a more forcible expression to the second arsis, 
as being not produced by that which precedes : e. g. 

Rex Olympie coelicola. -u-uv-luw, 
On the contrary, by inversion of the orders, the force of 
each arsis is diminished, as being produced by one arsis : 

Pinifer Olympus et Ossa, lvuv-w-v. 
These periodic orders, in which a new arsis takes place, are 
called concrete numbers. In those periodic orders, which 
have equal or diminished orders, we mark with the ictus the 
first arsis only ; but in concrete orders the new arsis also. 
It must be observed, however, that the following disposi- 
tion of numbers, 



— V — \J\J — W\J 



may be taken in two ways ; for it is either a periodic order, 
of concrete numbers, 



in which the two first orders proceed beyond their thesis, 
or it is composed of simple orders not cohering, 1^, -lw 

— WW. 

11. The times of orders which are in thesis must all be 
necessarily equal, because they represent a series of causes 
and effects unbroken by any foreign accession. And so, 



860 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



also, are the times of the anacrusis; for that differs from 
the thesis, only in having no arsis before it. Should it hap- 
pen, therefore, that any inequality should occur between 
these respective times, it will be necessary to form an arsis 
of the one of greatest length either next before, or next 
after the time on which the ictuation takes place. A time 
in arsis cannot be shorter than the times of the anacrusis, 
because the arsis, following the anacrusis, is a part 
of that series, of which the anacrusis too is a part; 
the following rhythm, therefore, would be faulty, -C : but 
these are correct, vw, - -. Neither can the arsis be shorter 
than the thetical times ; for, being the cause of these times, 
it cannot be shorter than its effects ; wherefore this rhythm 
i,- is faulty, but these are regular v w, --. But there is 
no incompatibility in the arsis being greater than the ana- 
crusis ; for the arsis, in respect of its being produced by an 
absolute cause, is exempt from the law of equality, provided 
that, in respect of its being an effect of preceding times, it 
be not less than they ;. these numbers, therefore, are just, 
v/J. ? w!. Nor is there any incompatibility in the arsis 
being greater than the thetical times ; for it may be so 
constituted as to produce the thesis not by its entire self, but 
by some part only of itself; and that part must indispens- 
ably be equal to the thetical times, in this manner, 



-WW —WWW 



^|w \s\y wjw 

So a superstructure cannot be supported by a foundation 
too small for it, but by one greater than necessary it may. 
12. From the consideration of times in their abstract 
nature, we proceed to that in their relation to each other, 
and hence results the idea of measure, which is the compa- 
rison of times, or the relative proportion of syllables, with- 



THE GRECIAN" DRAMA, 361 

out rhythm or numbers. Metricians use only two measures ; 
the single, or short, called by the Greeks y^povog and 
cfjjjueTov, by the Latins tempus and mora ; and the double, 
or long, which is compounded of two short. The ancient 
musicians used a quadruple and an octuple measure also. 
Modern music has many measures. 

13. A Foot is a certain composition of times, without re- 
gard to the rhythm or numbers in it. There are four dis- 
syllabic, eight trisyllabic, and sixteen quadrisyllabic feet ; 
they are the same as those given by other prosodians. 

14. A doubtful measure, called in Greek adiafyopog, is 
one which uiay be indifferently either long or short. There 
is also another measure, called in Latin irrationaMs, in 
Greek aXoyog (disproportionate), which is shorter than a 
long, and longer than a short ; it is used in some dactylic 
numbers, and also in the iambics and trochaics of come- 
dians. 

15. Numbers are in their own nature unchangeable ; for 
they cannot contain within themselves a cause for their being 
other than what they are. If, then, any numbers are inter- 
changed, it is done at the will of those who use them ; not, 
however, in an arbitrary way, but according to a certain 
rule, which is two-fold, one part respecting the measure, 
and the other the conformation of the number ; it is this, 
the numbers commuted ought to be both equal, i. e. consist 
of the same number of times ; and similar, i. e. such as 
may appear to effect the same thing with a moderate varia- 
tion. 

16. This permutation is made in five ways. First, by 
the introduction of irrational times. This seems to be done 
in some trochaic numbers, admitting a disyllabic instead of 
a monosyllabic thesis, or anacrusis, such as are the trhne- 



362 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

ters of the Greek comedians, and all the trochaic and iambic 
verses of the Latin, at least of the more ancient Latin ; in 
which, a dactyl and anapaest, being put for a trochee and 
iambus, have two short syllables nearly equal to one short 
one, which is the due measure. 

1 7. Secondly, iy resolution of the arsis, or contraction of 
the thesis, of which the first commonly takes place in tro- 
chaic numbers, the tribrach being substituted for the tro- 
chee ; the second in dactylic, the spondee being substituted 
for the dactyl ; the substitution of the feet above mentioned 
is warranted, both by their isochronism, and their similarity 
in point of rhythm. 

18. Thirdly, hy resolution of the arsis conjointly with con- 
traction of the thesis ; which takes places in those dactylics 
which metrical writers are accustomed to class as anapsestic, 
in which not only these three numbers are commuted, 



WW 

but a combination also of the second and third is added 
vv-^ which would be contrary to the law of numbers, were 
it not that two different numbers are perceived at the same 
time ; of both which the half only is expressed by sounds, 
syllables, motions, and the other half is noted with tacit ob- 
servation ; in the same manner as in modern music, what is 
called tact is perceived together with the numbers of musi- 
cal sounds, although most different ; in this manner, 

KCITT — KCLT — KCU -1 6a '_ 

\j\j 7T£(T£ \j\j Save w> Kara w t/>o/.i£V. 
Thus it is clear, that in a dactylic dimeter, composed of 
pure dactyls, this combined resolution and contraction con- 
verts the metre into anapaests ; but in order to preserve the 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 363 

subordination of the thetic times to the arsis, the arsis must 
be transferred to the long syllable ; from this, by contract- 
ing the anacrusis, results a system of spondees, or by resolv- 
ing the ictuated times we convert the metre into the pro- 
celeusmatic. 

19. Fourthly, ~by transposition of a time ; which mostly 
takes place in choriambic and ionic numbers, which, in like 
manner as the anapaestic, are classed by Hermann under 
the general name of dactylic. It consists in cutting off a 
part of the thesis or anacrusis, and prefixing it, in the one 
case, to the arsis as an anacrusis, in the other, as a thesis ; 
in this manner, 

—\JV —\j\s —Iv^vy — 

\.'—\J \A—\S \J—\\J — 

whence, the doubtful times being marked, the numbers will 

appear thus, 

-^v- Choriambi. 

U— v/- 

— |— w Ionics a majori. 

vw4|-l|yy— 1-1 Ionics a minori. 

This change amounts, both in choriambics and ionics, (re- 
spect being had to the syllables alone), to a substitution of 
the amphibrach for the dactyl, which may assume the form 
of the palimbacchius also, when it is considered that a mo- 
nosyllable anacrusis, as also the end of the order, are of 
doubtful quantity. This position is exemplified by a dime- 
ter ionic a minori ; this measure consists of four ictuated 
times, with the short ones preceding each as anacruses ; if 
now we retrench from the anacrusis that precedes the third 
arsis one of its times, and prefix it to the second arsis, by 
preserving its quantity we introduce an amphibrach into the 



364 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

middle of the line, and by augmenting it one time more, a 
palimbacchius. 

20. Fifthly, by transposition of part of the numbers ; this 
is peculiar to those species of polyschematistic verses, 
termed Grlyconean and Pkerecratean, and such as are de- 
rived from them. We. may select for illustration of this a 
dimeter choriambic, consisting of a choriambus and an iam- 
bic dipodia ; the concluding number of this being prefixed 
to the choriambus produces the ordinary form of the glyco- 
nic, or a verse consisting of iambus, choriambus, iambus, 
admitting also the variety of the trochee in the first seat. 
A farther transposition, namely, of the concluding iambus, 
produces a line composed of a ditrochee and a choriambus, 
which admits of a similar variety, viz. : the iambus in the 
first seat ; the second preserves the trochee invariable on 
account of the choriambus that comes after. Thus, 

— V \J — I \J — \J — 

.. ..\—\J\J -\\J - 

.. .. |— \^j_W- 

Both these metres are classed by Dr. Maltby under the 
head of antispastic, the glyconean being acatalectic. 

21. A verse is a number composed of one or more orders. 
Grammarians have assigned the limits within which the 
extent of each should be comprised, viz. : three and six 
syzygies. Parts of verses, if they consist of entire syzygies, 
are called »<wAa, if not of entire syzygies, Ko/i/iara. The 
numbers of every verse are continuous : the continuity of 
the language, therefore, ought not to be broken by an unal- 
lowable hiatus, or by admission of a doubtful syllable into 
an undue place. 

22. Asynartete verses are those whose parts are conjoined 
at the pleasure of the poet, the continuity of the words being 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. S65 

sometimes preserved, sometimes neglected, th3 hiatus and 
doubtful syllable being admitted. This definition differs 
from that of Heath, who, although he had defined asynar- 
tetes to be verses consisting of two or more shorter ones, so 
joined together as to form one, denied the license of the 
adiaphorous syllable to any excepting the closing member — • 
thus subjecting them to the same law with other species of 
verse, in which a perfect continuity of number is found. 

23. Hermann advances two other objections to the metrical 
nomenclature of the grammarians. The first respects the 
verses called polyscliemaiisti, which he defines to be such 
as admit of various forms by a transposition of a part of 
their numbers, (sec. 20). The grammarians applied the 
term to such also as allowed of a change in number, but fell 
into the error of a too exclusive regard to the system of 
syzygies, which they had themselves originated, a conse- 
quence of which was, that they frequently referred verses of 
the most discordant character to some one genus variously 
modified by the license of the poets. 

24. The second objection concerns the fxirpa kclt avTina- 
Oeiav juiKTa. This denomination he conceives to have been 
frequently misapplied, in consequence also of too exclusive 
a consideration of the syzygies ; since, if number be taken 
into account, it frequently happens, that verses which are 
usually ranked under this class present no antipathia what- 
ever. The rule in such cases is, to resolve the verses into 
their orders, not into their syzygies, and to denominate 
them from the result. An example or two will place this in 
a clearer light. The species of metre termed the Epionicum 
a majore, or Alcaicum hendecasyllabum, is regarded by Dr« 
Maltby and others as (jllktov kclt avTuraBetav, from its con- 
taining a diiambus connected with a choriambus ; but 



366 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

Hermann proposes a resolution into two orders, in the first 
of which the commencing syllable is the anacrusis to a tro- 
chaic number, while the second is dactylic. This, as is 
manifest, restores the rhythm. Another example is the 
Sapphic, or Epichoriambicum hendecasyllabum. This He- 
phsestion terminates with a foot of three syllables, which 
by adiaphoria may be either a bacchius or an amphibrachys, 
the rhythm of which is plainly repugnant to the choriambus 
that forms the intermediate measure. Hermann, however, 
separates it into two periodical orders, the first of which is 
a trochaic syzygy, with the fourth syllable doubtful, and the 
second a dactylic. The parity of number is in this way 
clearly restored, and coincides with that which results from 
the ordinary scansion of the sapphic. This measure is also 
classed by Dr. Maltby under the head of those icar avTiira- 
Oeiav, and is resolved by him in the same way with Hephses- 
tion, with this difference alone, that he admits the long 
syllable at the close of the first syzygy, or in other words, 
the variety of the second epitrite. This latter is the one 
invariably preferred by Horace ; but Catullus allows himself 
in these instances the license of a ditrochee, as also of a 
neglect of the penthemimeral caesura, which Horace is very 
strict in observing. Catullus, indeed, appears to have con- 
formed more scrupulously than Horace to the Greek models 
in this description of metre. In composing verses in this 
metre, we should never introduce a division of a word be- 
tween two of the hendecasyllabic verses, however this may 
appear allowable from it so frequently taking place between 
the third and the penthemimer choriambic, (or adonic), that 
follows. That it does so may be accounted for by the close- 
ness of the connexion that subsists between them. Again, 
the penthemimeral csesura requires not to be observed with 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA 



367 



great strictness, nor the termination of the first syzygy with 
a long syllable. Those who model their verses according to 
the Horatian measure, confine themselves within unneces- 
sarily narrow limits. 

25. The epiploke is a metrical artifice which consists in an 
iteration of the same feet, and such as by alternately adding 
and subtracting part thereof exhibit the same numbers. 
Of this grammarians have specified three principal sorts. 
The first consisted of a series of iambi, and was made to 
assume the trochaic measure by the addition of a long syl- 
lable to, or its subduction from, the beginning : this was 
called the epiploke TpiatipoQ BvadtKrj. The second, or Ttrpa- 
Gtlfxog dvadiKr), was the name given to a combination of 
dactyls, to the commencement of which if two times be 
added, or from it two subtracted, the number becomes 
anapaestic. The denomination dvaSucrj arose from the cir- 
cumstance of two kinds of numbers resulting from this 
change ; but supposing a number to be given presenting a 
combination of trochees and iambi alternately, we may 
form by the continued subduction and addition of a syllable 
the following numbers : ionic a minore, antispastic, and ionic 
a majore, which give us, in conjunction with the original 
measure, four species. The combination is from this cir- 
cumstance called z%a<jY)[Aog rar/oaStfc)). Hermann extends 
this doctrine of the epiploke to paeonic and cretic verses, 
contrary to the opinion of the Scholiast on Hephsestion, and 
illustrates his position by its application to two dimeters, one 
composed of paeons primi generis, and the other of cretics : 
the measures that result are paeons ^ar^'^wm^, and bacohii. 

26. Catalexis signifies the detraction of one or more 
times from the end of a verse. The manner in which verses 
end is termed aTrodwig, With relation to this, lines are 



368 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

denominated acatalectic, catalectic, brachycatalectic, and 
hypereatalectic. The meaning of these terms has been 
given ; it may be remarked, however, that the first two and 
the last are applied to verses whether scanned by dipodiae 
or otherwise, while the third implies a resolution of the 
verse into dipodice. It has been mentioned that, in dacty- 
lics, verses may be catalectic and hypereatalectic ug avWa- 
firiv, or elg SiavWaflov, according as the truncated foot is 
deficient by two times or one, or according as the verse is 
redundant by one or two syllables. In paaonic verses, 
however, we may have a cataiexis on a trisyllable, as also 
an hypereatalexis. These, however, were not recognised by 
the old metrical writers, who reckoned a verse of the pseonic 
kind, which was catalectic on a trisyllable, as hypereatalec- 
tic, with the last foot an amphimaeer. 
. 27. A system is a collection of verses joined in an unin- 
terrupted succession, which is governed by the same rules 
as those by which orders are assembled into a verse. 

28. Since music* admits not only more than two measures, 
but a greater variation of numbers than the metrical art, 
which regards the recitation only of verses, the numbers of 
verses must unavoidably be changed by singing. And the 
evidences of the changes so effected, are, on account of the 
want of testimonies of writers on the point, collected from 
the conformation itself of metres, which present certain diffi- 
culties otherwise inexplicable. Hitherto a threefold con- 
junction of musical with metrical numbers has been 
discovered, viz. : by measure greater than metrical, by pause, 
by paracataloge. 

* The musicians every now and then accelerated or retarded the 
measure of times ; which proceeding was called aycayn • whence the 
same foot wa3 in one place much shorter, in another much slower. 



THE GKECIAN DRAMA. 369 

29. A measure greater than metrical is exhibited in the 
feet called orthius and semantus trochee ; both of which 
consisted of two long syllables, the one of four, the other of 
eight times ; the shorter part being the first in the orthius, 
and the last in the semantus trochee ; hence, the latter, as 
its name indicates, resembles a trochee, the former an 
iambus. 

30. A pause is sometimes made in the middle of a mu- 
sical rhythm ; and this, since it causes the admission both 
of an hiatus and of a doubtful syllable, requires that the 
verse should end in the same place. 

31. Paracataloge is a relaxation of rhythm approaching 
to the loose numbers of common conversation ; this by mo- 
dern musicians is called recitative. It is perceived in two 
particulars ; in the remission of celerity in the end of certain 
numbers, as dochmiac and glyconean, whence these receive 
a spondee in the place of the concluding iambus : and next 
in the resolution of the whole rhythm ; which is effected by 
the adjection of several short syllables to certain numbers, 
as to dochmiac numbers. 

32. Language of itself has numbers or rhythm ; because 
without rhythm neither could syllables be joined in words, 
nor words be joined in sentences, and distinguished one 
from another ; its indication in the former being accent, and 
in the latter, intension or remission of the voice : wherefore, 
language included in verses is so to be regulated, that its 
rhythm may agree with that of the verses, and that the one 
may not destroy the other. The three instruments by 
which this is effected are cwsura, the doubtful syllable, and 
prosody. 

33. Ccesura, or incisure, called by the Greeks TOfirj, is that 
place in a verse in which some order is ended. Properly, 

B B 



370 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

therefore, a verse has just so many caesuras as it has orders, 
except that the end of the last order, which is at the same 
time the end of the whole verse, cannot, it is evident, be 
called a caesura. A verse being expressed in words, the 
csesura signifies the end of a rhythm in the words, coinciding 
with the end of a metrical order ; and usually it is not the 
termination of any one metrical order that is understood 
by the term, but the termination, by the end of a sentence 
or word, of some one order whereof the end deserves parti- 
cular notice. Now, ' if even in the middle of a verse the 
rhythm of the words ought to end together with the metri- 
cal rhythm, it is evident, that the observation of the same 
rule is still more requisite at the conclusion of a whole verse ; 
it is fit, therefore, that a verse should end in a whole word. 

34. In addition to this there is yet another way of marking 
the csesura, viz. : by the termination of a sentence or clause : 
this results from pronunciation marking not only single 
words, but also assemblages of connected words ; thus in the 
line, 

ttovto) fxtv to. TTptora Kopvacrerai, avrap £7T£ira, Horn, 
the place of the caesura is marked by the pause which takes 
place after the verb. 

35. Hermann regards the elision of a syllable as inter- 
fering neither in Greek nor Latin verse with the caesura, 
and for this reason, that the word should be looked upon as 
terminating with the syllable that precedes the elided one. 
He, also, regards the species denominated by Porson quasi- 
cwsura, as a caesura in the strictest sense, and this in conse- 
quence of the pause which will be found invariably to take place 
in the cases to which Porson limits it : but he excludes this 
elision from the end of the verse, unless in cases when the 
sense of the passage sanctions an intimate connexion of it 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 371 

with the following, that is, unless there is an approach to 
the law of anapaestic verse termed awafoia. He also 
applies the principle of the pause to the verse (1402) of the 
Philoctetes, viz. : 

Et cokel ora^to/iEv. r Q, yzvvaiov elprjKwg iirog : 
which Porson regarded as the only violation of his canon, 
" that in the trochaic senarius obtained by taking away a 
cretic from the beginning of a catalectic tetrameter trochaic, 
the penthemimeral caesura is always observed. 1 ' Hermann, 
however, denies that it is a violation of this canon, as it is 
distributed between two speakers, and has the law of its 
orders, or in other words, its caesural construction, modified 
by the full pause that separates the numbers of the second 
dipodia. 

36. The species of csesura enumerated by Hermann are 
the necessary, unnecessary, mutable, immutable, and adsciti* 
tious. 

37. A necessary csesura is one which requires a pause so 
considerable, that it cannot be neglected without sacrifice of 
the whole rhythm : when this caesura happens to be ne- 
glected, at least care is taken that there may be some excuse 
for it in a compound word. An unnecessary caesura is one 
which may be neglected without subversion of the metrical 
rhythm. The necessary caesura may be illustrated by refer- 
ence to the elegiac pentameter, in which, if the stop be 
made either before or after the caesural syllable, the remain- 
ing portion of the verse will present an anapaestic number, 
one irreconcileable with the preceding part. 

38. The caesura is immutable, when the orders into which 
it resolves the verse cannot be disposed in any way but one ; 
and mutable, when they may be marked out in more ways 
than one. In the sapphic verse, 7roiKi\60pov\ aQavar 



372 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

'A^/ooSiTa, the elisions mark the orders : these, as is mani- 
fest, cannot be other than they are, and therefore is its 
caesura termed immutable. The caesura is also immutable in 
the elegiac pentameter. But when any species of verse is 
proposed which admits of several dispositions as to order, 
such as the heroic hexameter, or the iambic trimeter, the 
caesura therein is termed mutable ; thus we may terminate 
the first of the three orders into which the senary may be 
resolved, in the fourth and eighth half-feet, or in the fifth and 
ninth, or in the fourth and ninth, or, lastly, in the fifth and 
eighth. It is clear, that in the first of these instances, the 
metrical scansion, and that relative to number, coincide ; in 
the second we have an instance of two caesurae, the penthe- 
mimeral and the ennemimeral ; in the third, the last of these 
alone occurs ; in the fourth, the penthemimeral. 

39. An adscititious caesura is one which introduces a new 
rhythm, but one reconcileable with the proper rhythm of 
the verse ; as in heroic verse, when the last syllable, which 
is in thesis, is, by a monosyllable endued with a certain 
force or emphasis, changed into arsis : as, 

ycuav 6/xou kcu ttovtov' bpuypu S' ovpavoOsv vv%. Horn. 

JSternitur, eocanimisque tremens procumbit humi bos. Virg. 

Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Hor. 

Another kind of adscititious caesura is that, by which a 
section or division being made, either a little before the 
close of a verse, or a little after the beginning of a following 
verse, the remaining part of the first verse in the one case 
is made continuous with the following verse, and the initial 
part of the following verse, in the other case, with the fore- 
going verse ; as may be seen in GEd. R. 29, and (Ed. Col. 
1164. 

40. The second instrument by which the rhythm of the 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 373 

words is adapted to the rhythm of the verse, is the syllable 
of doubtful quantity. A doubtful syllable, adiacjtopog, is 
one whose measure may be either long or short indifferently : 
it is evident, however, that since with respect to numbers 
no measure is doubtful, this whole doctrine has reference to 
the words, of which at one time some long syllable is 
reckoned short, at another some short syllable long ; these 
syllables had, therefore, a two fold quantity, absolute and 
relative, the last of which was determined by the number of 
the verse, and was wholly independent of the first. This 
substitution of short syllables for long, or conversely, can be 
effected in those places only of the numbers, in which faulti- 
ness of measure may easily escape unobserved : such places 
are two ; first, the anacrusis consisting of one short syllable ; 
in which the irregularity offends not for three reasons : it 
is preceded by nothing with which it may be compared, and 
thus in the absence of a rule, or criterion, we are not offended 
at the substitution of a long for a short syllable ; it consists 
not of a multiplicity of parts, whereof one might serve to 
define and regulate the other ; and, it is immediately suc- 
ceeded by the arsis, which, by reason of the ictus, is 
wholly dissimilar in its effects and properties : second, the 
last syllable of orders, whether it be arsis or thesis ; which 
being followed by nothing that can determine its length, we 
are not offended if a long one is put for a short, or a short 
for a long, since it is absolutely necessary that there should 
be a pause at the end. These principles serve to explain 
the ambiguity of quantity (adta^opia) in iambic verses, Doric 
epitrites, and the parts of asynartetes. The commencing 
syllable in the first of these is the anacrusis to the arsis 
which follows, the fifth syllable may be the termination of 
an order, and so also may the ninth : in these places, there- 



374 THE GRECIAN DEAMA. 

fore, a long syllable is admissible, although the law of the 
number requires a short ; and this, in the instance of the 
senary, is the common rule with respect to the admission of 
the spondee into the uneven seats. The irregularity to 
which Hermann adverts in the case of Doric epitrites, (a 
species of verse in which these feet occurred in connection 
with dactylic numbers, and so called because adapted to 
the Doric mode), consists in the admission of a syllable of 
short quantity into the end of the order, followed by a dif- 
ferent number, and which, by the regular constitution of 
the foot, should be long : this syllable is, as is manifest, in 
thesis ; but the same rule applies to the last syllable of 
every verse, whether it be in arsis or in thesis, provided the 
number terminates with the verse. It extends also to the 
parts of asynartetes, because these are composed of numbers 
which succeed each other in no regular series. 

41 . With regard to the last syllable of orders, the follow- 
ing rules are to be observed ; first, the doubtful syllable finds 
no place in the midst of a periodic order, even though it may 
terminate one of the minor orders of which the periodic 
order is composed, in consequence of its proceeding in one 
continued number, and depending on one arsis alone, viz., 
the first : but at the conclusion of it, the pause which takes 
place renders an ambiguity of measure more readily admis- 
sible, as nothing occurs there to define it with accuracy. 
This is illustrated in the cases of final iambic and trochaic 
dipodige, ithyphallic, and eupolidean verses. The last sylla- 
bles in the first of these are doubtful, but not so those which 
occur in the middle of the order. The ithyphallic, which 
consists of three trochees following each other in continued 
periodic order, and is not in consequence resolvable into 
dipodise, has, for this reason, its sixth, not its fourth, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA* 375 

syllable doubtful; and on the contrary, the eupolidean, 
which exhibits orders composed of single trochees, admits 
this ambiguity of measure into the last syllables of these feet 
severally. 

42, The second rule with regard to these extreme sylla- 
bles is, that certain doubtful syllables are found only at the 
end of a verse ; and the final syllable of a verse, which is at 
the same time the final one of a word, is doubtful on all ac- 
counts, both the metrical and the verbal numbers ending 
in it : some are found in the middle of a verse also, and 
these either in the end only of a word, or in the middle also. 
In the middle of a verse, and the middle of a word, the ana- 
crusis, or last thesis of trochaic numbers, and the last thesis 
of numbers consisting of Doric epitrites are doubtful. The 
arsis of dactylic orders, and the spondiac thesis of the 
fourth foot in heroic verse, admit the doubtful syllable in 
the middle of a verse, but only in the end of a word ; 
as, lKTr£p<jai Upiajj.010 7roXiv, zv §' o'/fcaS' ikzgOcu. 

and, rij cT £7rl filv Fopyuj fiXoarvpuiriQ iGrefyavioTO. Horn. 
The arsis of dactylic orders does so both by virtue of its own 
force, and on account of the conclusion of the numbers 
which are in the word itself; the thesis, on account of the 
very strong csesura in that place ; both the metrical numbers, 
and those of the word, ending together. In trochaic num- 
bers the arsis does not admit the doubtful syllable, both 
because it is weaker, and because these numbers, which 
admit of many resolutions, would be embarrassed by it. 
Homer has seldom allowed even the spondiac thesis to b 
doubtful in the middle of words. 

43. A doubtful syllable, which by the law of the numbers 
is to be reckoned short, cannot be resolved into two short 



376 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

syllables ; because, when it is long, by the law of the num- 
bers it is not long, but is to be reckoned short : for it is 
preposterous that a long syllable, which does not pass for 
a long one, should be equal to two short syllables. 

44. Prosody has been defined " Lex et ratio acuendi, 
vel deprimendi, aut circumflectendi syllabas," and in this 
relation to accent it has been received by the ancient writers 
on the subject ; thus Quintilian speaks of accentus as cor- 
responding to the Greek irpoaio^ia. The view which Her- 
mann takes of it is less limited, since, regarding it as the 
third instrument by which the numbers of language are 
adapted to metrical numbers, he comprises under the deno- 
mination all the artifices by which it effects this adaptation : 
they are, the convenience of the metre, accentuation of 
words, intension of the voice, and punctuation. 

45. The convenience of the metre lies in elongation and 
correction of syllables on account of the metre, hiatus, eli- 
sion, crasis, and synizesis. 

46. Among the Greeks elongation on account of the 
metre is much more frequent than correction. It is most 
used in heroic verse, and chiefly in words abounding with 
short syllables, which cannot otherwise be adapted to the 
metre. For the most part it is only the first syllable of 
these words that is made long, and that, too, in the metrical 
arsis, both by the force of the metrical arsis itself, and be- 
cause the beginning of a word has an arsis of the numbers 
which are in the word itself. Such are the words Itt'itovoq, 
awoviedOai, aOavarog, which last word has thence acquired 
among the Attics a regular and legitimate elongation of the 
first syllable. So in compound words, too, not any syllable, 
but either the first of a posterior word, as in i^airovkadai, 
or the last of an anterior one, is made long in a metrical 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 377 

arsis, the conclusion of the numbers which are in the word, 
and the force of the metrical arsis, assisting the elongation, 
as Iliad r. 35, Odyss. /c. 169. Although in these examples, 
perhaps the digamma, or the duplication of the liquid letter, 
much in use among epic poets, contributed somewhat to the 
facility of the elongation. 

We have seen that Dunbar extends this doctrine of the 
arsis, not confining it to first syllables of words, or to 
compound words, but extending it to the dactylic ictuations 
wherever they may be found. 

This production of syllables " ob commoditatem metri," 
Hermann extends to the tragic metres, limiting it, however, 
to proper names. He arranges the elongations which are 
due to the force of the consonants under four heads, viz. : 
the doubling of liquids ; the cases in which a mute is followed 
by a liquid ; those in which a consonant is inserted for the 
purpose of sustaining the short vowel ; and those in which 
the sustaining power is exerted by the letter p. The first 
two were practised by the older epic poets, and from them 
the second passed to the writers of iambics : the third ac- 
counts for such forms as vwvvfivog, cnraXafivog, &c. : the 
fourth has been given by Dawes as his third canon. Dawes 
grounded this canon on the facility with which the letter p 
admitted of the pronunciation of the digamma before it : 
this accompaniment he conceives to have invariably taken 
place in certain words, and to have originated the long 
quantity in the preceding short vowel, which metrical 
writers usually explain by the doubling the p ; thus frango 
is derived from pTjowti, &c. 

47. Corrections are, for the most part, owing to necessity, 
both in proper names which could not otherwise enter the 
metre, as "'AdivaOev, or in a syllable preceding a proper 



378 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

name, as ol Se ZatwvQov, and in other necessary words, as 
before cKEirapvov, or they are made by the extrusion of a 
letter, as in Tv-rravov, or by some peculiarity of dialect, as 
in the word l<r\bg in the Doric, or lastly, before two conso- 
nants also less favorable to conception, as before J3X, y\, julv. 

48. Two kinds of recitation were used by the Latins ; 
the one guided chiefly by the accents of words, and the 
ordinary pronunciation, which kind was employed by the 
ancient actors ; the other formed upon the Greek model, 
having been introduced first by Ennius into epic poetry, 
afterwards in the Augustan age into almost every sort of 
poetry. The former theatrical recitation abounds with cor- 
reptions, and pays no regard to position, whence ille, atque, 
juventutis, and a great many other words are pronounced 
with vowels shortened before two consonants. They even 
shorten long vowels, when the last is elided, as, concede hue, 
secede hue. 

49. The concurrence of vowels or diphthongs, one of which 
ends, and the other begins, two consecutive words, each re- 
taining its proper force in pronunciation, is termed hiatus. 
The laws which regulate the use of the hiatus, are, accord- 
ing to Hermann, the following : 

I, The lyric poets, whenever they introduced it into tro- 
chaic numbers, caused it in most instances to fall upon the 
arsis, and on a long syllable. When they admitted it in 
the thesis, they placed it at the end of a number, in order 
that the least possible violation of the rhythm should take 
place ; this was effected by means of the pause. 2. The 
writers of iambics (such as Archilochus) admitted it but 
seldom, and when they did, caused it to fall upon the arsis. 
In the trochaic thesis, it was requisite, in order to its admis- 
sion, that the vowel on which it fell should be incapable of 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 379 

elision. 3. The tragic writers observed the first of these 
laws, but selected for the purpose vowels of sufficient length, 
and diphthongs ; and in particular cases, such as resolutions 
of the trochaic numbers, used it in a short syllable in thesis, 
the reason of which is stated by Hermann to be the approx- 
imation of those numbers to the dactylic. 4. In dactylic 
and anapaestic metres, and in the melic parts of their 
dramas more particularly, the tragic poets admitted the 
hiatus on a long vowel or diphthong when shortened. This 
license Hermann extends to cases of production in arsis, 
and it occurs in the anapaestic, more especially if there be 
a change of person. This is an extension of Porson s rule, 
" Sicubi hiatum tragici relinquunt, turn vocalem vel diph- 
thongum necessario corripiunt." 

50. The tragic writers never use r/, or on, before words 
beginning with a vowel or diphthong ; nor do they use irepl in 
trimeter iambic or trochaic verses, or in legitimate ana- 
paestic systems, before a vowel, whether in the same or in 
different words. In the melic systems they admit it, in 
some few instances, in composition with an adjective or an 
adverb, but never with a verb or a substantive ; and should 
a case at any time occur, in which it was necessary to use 
7T£pl in connexion with a pure word, .they guarded against 
the hiatus, by interposing one or more words between the 
compounds, by tmesis. This canon does not extend to the 
comic writers, or to the satyric dramas. 

51. On the subject of elision the following rules are laid 
down : 

1. The terminating t of the dative singular and plural of 
the third declension is never elided by the Attics, though 
other poets have departed from their practice. 2. The i of 
irefA is never elided, excepting by the iEolic, or the iEolo- 



380 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

Doric writers. 3. Elision never takes place in the termi- 
nating vowel o of the Ionic and Doric forms of the genitive 
singular, in the first and second declensions respectively. 
4. As regards diphthongs, the tragic writers used occasionally 
either synizesis, or elision, in case of a long vowel or a diph- 
thong following, with which a convenient synizesis might be 
formed. In the particular instance of ot/xot, the diphthong 
is elided only in case of <d following. Erfurdt maintains 
that the tragic writers never admitted of the elision of 
diphthongs ; in the case of the comic writers, the diphthong 
m, when short, is elided in the first and third persons of 
verbs, and in the infinitive moods. The epic writers follow 
the same rule, but in the latter case more rarely. The lyric 
poets follow their example. The later tragedy objects not 
to the elision of at. With respect to diphthongs in general 
it may be stated, that the Attic poets never tolerated their 
elision before a short vowel. 

52. Crasis is that particular species of contraction that 
takes place when a word ending with a diphthong, or a vowel, 
coalesces with the following one that begins in a similar 
manner, as, Kara for /cat sit a. Properly speaking, there are 
three distinct operations to be considered in effecting such 
unions, viz. : crasis, thlipsis, and synseresis, all of which may 
be exemplified from the example given. The crasis forms 
of the two vowels, a and c, one, viz. a. The thlipsis ex- 
cludes the t of koa ; and the synseresis forms the improper 
diphthong with a and the second t, viz. of ura. Crasis is 
used by Attic writers more than any others, but only in 
associations of certain words ; for a crasis is made by those 
or nearly those words only, which coalesce in the sense 
also, as one notion or idea. Whence the most frequent 
crasis is in the article and noun, as, 'avrjp, 6vp.oi, rovpyov; 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 381 

also in some particles, as rav^rapa, for toi a v, rolapti. It is more 
unusual in a pronoun and verb, as, a'x t0 > ^ ov " £ X W - ^ * s 
found also in a verb and pronoun, as, yevrjaofiayib, for yevrj- 
aofxai tyw, which, although it occurs in Iphig. Aul. 1 406. 
is properly a form peculiar to comedians, who contract the 
first person of the future, of the passive termination, with 
other nouns also, as TrspioxpoficnrEXQovTa. Further it is to 
be understood in general, that the long vowels a, 77, <u, 
easily dissolve in crasis with a short initial one, which is 
almost only e ; as does the diphthong ou, which appears to 
be nothing but a succedaneum for a vowel which wanted a 
proper character among the Greeks. But the same con- 
traction is not made in those also which are properly 
diphthongs, except in those futures, as, yavrjo-ojuayw. But 
Kal makes a crasis with all vowels and diphthongs ; seldomer, 
however, with i. And Porson has observed, that it is not 
united by crasis with ad, or with tv, except in compound 
words. 

53. Synizesis or synecphonesis consists in the pronuncia- 
tion of two vowels together, but not so as to unite them in 
a diphthong ; it thus differs from crasis in its effecting unions 
of syllables without contraction, as Szvdpico, which in Homer 
becomes a word of two syllables. Porson denied the existence 
of this figure in any case excepting that of the vowel £, and 
even then, its generality. Hermann labours to prove, that 
its operation extends to other vowels besides e, though he 
acknowledges that it occurs most frequently in that letter, 
in consequence of the rapidity with which it is pronounced. 
He asserts that the synecphonesis of rj ou, jut) ov, jut) (bpataiv, 
fxrj eldivai, and Ittu ov, is usual and established among the 
Attics. He also asserts from iEschylus the synizesis of a 
and i ; from Homer that of v with f, o, and w ; from Sopho^ 



382 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

cles that of v with ot ; from iEschylus, Sophocles, and Eu- 
ripides, that of i with a, as also with other vowels, when it 
terminates the dative singular of the third declension. 

54. Accent is defined to be the arsis of the number which 
is peculiar to words themselves, and since a syllable may be 
produced if placed in ictu, that is, in a mutable arsis, the 
production may certainly also take place in that which is 
subject to no change. The seat of this production varies, 
therefore, according to that of the accent, viz. : from the 
last syllable to the antepenultimate. In final syllables the 
production takes place as in csesurse, at least with but few 
exceptions, as, II. s, 358. In penults, if the last syllable 
be long, the accentuated one is in thesis, as in II. t, 73 ; but 
if short, the production is as frequently to be attributed to 
the power of the ictus, the digamma, or the duplication of 
the consonant, as to the accent. In antepenults, if the pe- 
nult be short, the syllable is placed in ictu, and if long, it 
becomes thetic, and in most instances closes an order of the 
verse. The examples of the correption of syllables brought 
forward by Hermann, are as follow : 

1 . Oxytones of three syllables, such as Imrih in which the 
correption takes place in consequence of the closing accent. 

2. Such words as j3ouAsrcu, aydpofxsv, for jSouArjra*, 
ayslpiofxev, in which he conceives it to be due to the accent 
which goes before. 

3. Those words in which the final syllable is shortened in 
consequence of the word being paroxytone, as, tug, in II. a, 
193. 

55. In the commencement of speech, and when we wish 
to speak with significancy, we are accustomed to raise the 
voice ; hence in the first arsis of an heroic Verse, the inten- 
sion of the voice has sometimes the effect of lengthening a 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 383 

short syllable ; as in II. 8, 155. e, 359. x, 379. & 2. On a 
similar principle an elongation is made in proper names of 
weight or importance: JEsch. S. ad Th. 494. 553. 

56. Punctuation, as has been observed in chap. 6, some- 
times lengthens short final syllables. 

57. Simple metres are those which proceed in one kind of 
numbers. And since all numbers are contained either in 
arsis alone, or have a thesis of times either equal in measure 
to the arsis, or less, it appears that there are three kinds 
of numbers ; the first of arsis alone ; the second of equal 
times, which are pyrrhichiac numbers, tribrachic, proceleus- 
matic, sponcliac, molossic ; the third of unequal times, which 
are trochaic numbers, dactylic, pseonic : which have so 
much variety and sweetness, that they are of all numbers 
the most in use. 

58. Bare arsis is seldom employed ; and indeed a metre 
composed of nothing but arsis, would be inelegant and harsh. 
Yet something of the kind is found in a base. So we call a 
rhythm composed of a double arsis, which is used in the 
commencement of certain numbers beginning with an arsis, 
as some dactylic, choriambic, and logacedic numbers. It 
may thus be explained why the base is always found before 
an arsis, and never before an anacrusis. Those who take a 
standing leap, with their feet joined, to clear a rope, first 
jump twice for the purpose of collecting their force, and 
then make the main leap : the base resembles those two pre- 
paratory jumps ; the arsis, the main leap. Now let a per- 
son, after so jumping twice, step with one foot to take a 
spring, and then endeavour to make the main leap by the 
impulse of the other foot against the ground : he will im- 
mediately perceive, that by the step so made to take a 
spring, (which step represents the anacrusis) he has lost all 



384 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

the force before gained by the double jump, and thus has 
frustrated the design of it. 

That a base consists of a double arsis is known from this 
circumstance, that both syllables have an uncertain mea- 
sure ; for if only one of the two had an arsis, there ought, 
according to the law of numbers, to be a certain relative 
proportion of measures : but if both are in arsis, they are 
both legitimately doubtful, because each of the two is at 
once the beginning and the end of the numbers ; whence 
all disyllabic feet are admitted indiscriminately ; viz. : 
11 ; 11; J! ; 11 ; at least by the iEolic lyric poets, as 
Sappho, &c. But the lyric poetry of the Dorians, which 
tragedy and comedy follow, excluded the pyrrhic ; as they, 
therefore, chose to have the one or the other arsis necessa- 
rily long, this long arsis might consentaneously be resolved 
into two short ; hence there is place also for an anapaest, a 
dactyl, and a tribrach, though these feet are seldom used. 

59. Numbers occur, though rarely, composed of only 
shorty or only long times ; chiefly of short. But such num- 
bers, at least most of them, appear to have arisen from 
resolutions or contractions of numbers having unequal 
times ; so that no certain forms of them can be constituted, 
which are not identical with such as are comprehended in 
numbers of unequal times. In these numbers a suitable 
pronunciation must be attended to ; from which it is for the 
most part easily collected, whether they belong to trochees, 
or iambics, or anapaests, or dochmiacs, in which kind the 
resolution of all long syllables is extremely common. Spon- 
diac numbers commonly belong to anapaests ; the molossic 
are not used, although mentioned by Marius Victorinus. 

60. Numbers of unequal times are trochaic, dactylic, and 
peeonic. Of each there are five species, viz. : 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



385 



Trochaic numbers. 





— \-»-vy 


Trocliaic. 


\J 


— Vr 


Iambic. 




— V- 


Cretic. 


\J 


— — w 


Antispastic. 


V 


- - 


Bacchiac. 


Dactylic numbers. 






-\jvj-vv Dactylic. 


v/y 


— wv- 


Anapaestic. 




— ^y — 


Choriambic. 




— — vw 


Ionic a majore. 


\j\j 


-- 


Ionic a minore 


Pseonic number 


S. 





— vyv/v/-vw 



— uwv/- 



First pseons. 
Fourth pseons. 
Strophi. 
Dasii. 
Symplecti. 

61. Metres which are not simple are divided into mixed 
and compound. The waia?^ are those which consist of differ- 
ent numbers blended and mingled together ; the compound, 
those in which several numbers are joined in such a manner 
that one follows another separately. Mixture is twofold. 
1. Several numbers or rhythms change their turns, so that 
one is put for another ; of which, although each is of itself 
simple, yet the numbers formed of both, because they are 
neither the one nor the other, but a sort of changeable 
numbers, comprehending both, cannot be ranked either with 
the simple or the compound. These are the polyschematisti 
or anomalous. 2. The other mode of mixture is, when dif- 
ferent numbers cohere in one order, which numbers, if the 
stronger precede the weaker, are called diminislied ; if the 
weaker precede the stronger? concrete. Composition also is 

c c 



886 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

two-fold ; for it is effected either by coherence, called by the 
Greeks owafeia, which allows of nothing in the commissure 
of two parts which may break the continuity of language ; 
or without any bond of connexion, in which case the verses 
are asynartete, wherein language may be either continued 
or interrupted. 

These various species have been already considered. 

62. It may, however, be well to give more fully Her- 
mann's reasons for considering trochaic and iambic verse to 
be identical. 

1. The variety which is admitted into trochaic verse, 
viz. of spondees in the even places, and into iambic, of the 
same feet in the odd, may be accounted for on the same 
principle, whether the iambic verse be resolved into iambic 
dipodise, or, by considering the first syllable an anacrusis, 
into trochaic. For it has been already laid down as a 
principle, that, in a periodic order, only the monosyllable 
anacrusis and the end of the order can admit of the doubt- 
ful syllable. But on comparing these orders in the trochaic 
trimeter and the iambic, each being resolved into their own 
dipodise, it will appear that the end of each order in the 
former will occupy the same place with an anacrusis in the 
latter ; and on comparing a trochaic similarly resolved, with 
an iambic divided into trochaic orders, the termination of 
the orders will be found to be coincident, and consequently 
so will the places of the adiaphorous syllables. The reason- 
ing here, therefore, amounts to this, that the variety in the 
measure can be satisfactorily accounted for on a common, 
or an analogous principle, supposing the two numbers, iam- 
bic and trochaic, to be essentially the same. 

2. The next argument in confirmation of this doctrine is 
founded B on an objection which is brought against it, viz. : 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 38? 

that the characteristics of the numbers differ from each 
other- — that a greater latitude is allowed in the iambic than 
in the trochaic measure. In order to meet this, Hermann 
adduces the fact, that the trimeters of the comic writers 
have less restrictions imposed upon them than those of the 
tragic ; and this he ascribes to the latter being most gene- 
rally resolved into orders that exhibit a more completely, 
developed trochaic number than the former, the orders of 
which most usually correspond with the dipodise. Now it 
was necessary to preserve a greater degree of equality in 
the trochaic measure for the three following reasons : there 
is a recurrence of the same order in each dipodia ; there is 
no anacrusis to enhance the force of the number ; and, the 
orders terminate in thesi, which is less marked than when 
the arsis defines the terminating point, as is the case in iam- 
bic verse. But in the latter, not only are there present 
both an anacrusis to mark the commencement of the order, 
and an arsis to mark its termination, but the trochaic num- 
ber is only once exhibited in each order, The greater 
license, therefore, in iambic verse is to be explained, not by 
any intrinsic difference existing between the numbers, but 
by the presence of conditions which are referrible to the 
measure alone, and the less frequent iteration of the num- 
ber which was subjected to the greatest restrictions. 

This argument he regards as acquiring force from the 
circumstance, that certain licenses, which should be ad- 
mitted into iambic verse according to the principles of the 
metrical writers, are not allowable in consequence of their 
repugnance to the trochaic number ; and on the other hand, 
some which suit this latter are introduced into the former, 
though at variance with those principles. In proof of this 
he adduces the anapsest, and the proceleusmatic. The 



388 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

former has been admitted into the first seat of the senary 
by the tragic writers, and this license the comic have ex- 
tended to all seats but the last. Now, according to the 
system of scansion by feet it will appear, that the anapaest 
may succeed either the dactyl or the tribrach in a trimeter, 
which is contrary to the canon laid down by Dawes ; but by 
scanning the verse trochaically it will be at once perceived, 
that the conjunction here mentioned, and which might be 
allowed according to the principles of the grammatical 
writers, would involve the substitution of a proceleusmatic 
ictuated on the first syllable for a trochee, which never can 
be done. 

Another principle of the grammarians was, that the pro- 
celeusmatic could not be substituted for the iambus. But 
here again let us have recourse to the trochaic scansion, 
and place the ictus on the third syllable of the proceleusma- 
tic foot : we effect in this way a substitution of a tribrach 
ictuated on its first syllable for a trochee, which is quite 
legitimate, and in accordance with the practice of the Latin 
poets, with whom the introduction of the proceleusmatic 
for the iambus was very frequent. 

These are the chief reasons assigned by Hermann in proof 
of the number of the iambic verse being trochaic, and which 
he owns his having adopted from Bentley. It may be re- 
marked, that Person seems to proceed in a similar way, 
forming the trimeter from the trochaic tetrameter, by sub- 
tracting the cretic foot or pseon from its commencement : 
but this is merely for the convenience it offered of stating 
certain laws of this species of trochaic metre, with reference 
to those which he had established before with respect to the 
senary. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 389 



SECTION II. 



porson s preface to the hecuba, and supplement, with 
Hermann's observations thereon. 



1. Porson's preface to the Hecuba, and the supplement 
which was published some years after the preface, may be 
said to have marked an era in Greek criticism, by the satis- 
factory elucidation they afforded of certain points relating 
to grammar and versification, which were before involved in 
much uncertainty. The principal opponents of Porson's 
views were Wakefield and Hermann. 

The canons which Porson lays down relating to grammar 
and orthography are the following : 

(1 .) The subscribed iota is to be rejected in all the cases 
in which Kai forms a crasis with words beginning with a 
vowel, and retained only in those in which the crasis is 
formed with words beginning with a diphthong having an 
iota as its second vowel, as kcltl for koX fri, Kara for /cat eTra. 

(2.) The words aid, cuztoq, icXatw, kgiw, are to be writ- 
ten with the simple vowel, thus, aei, azrog, &c. ; and that 
vowel is common. 

(3.) Brunck's rule respecting the second person of the 
future indicative of the passive voice, viz. : of terminating it 
in ei, not in y, is extended to the second person of the pre- 
sent. 

(4.) The augment is never omitted in Attic Greek. 

2. With regard to the first canon, he observes, that the 
more ancient manuscripts, viz. : those written before the 



390 THE GRECIAN ©RAMA. 

close of the thirteenth century, agree in rejecting the sub- 
scribed iota from the above mentioned class of compounds ; 
and the argument acquires force from this circumstance, 
that though there were two sects of grammarians, of which 
the one added it to datives and infinitives, as juoucxjjt, Spctlv, 
and the other did not, yet both agreed in the omission men- 
tioned in the canon. 

3. In defence of the second canon, he cites the instances 
of iwjucu, larpog, Xiav, &c, in which the initial vowel is com- 
mon. He says that Valckenaer is mistaken when he says, 
that all the places of Euripides, in which the first syllable of 
\iav is long, admit of easy emendation ; and in proof of this 
cites a correction of Valckenaer's, which introduces re as 
the second syllable of a tribrach, whereas, as has been 
stated, re and ye can never stand as the second syllable of a 
trisyllabic foot, in a senarius, nor as the first syllable of a 
trisyllabic foot in trochaic metre. 

Hermann differs from Porson, • and founds his opinion 
respecting the use of aid by the Attics, partly on the insuf- 
ficiency of the passage cited by Pierson from Eustathius to 
prove the possibility of lengthening the first syllable of ael, 
and partly on positive argument. He denies that the quan- 
tity of this syllable entered at all into the contemplation of 
Eustathius, and asserts, that he was concerned with any 
thing else but proving that the iota was omitted by the 
Athenians in this, as well as in other words enumerated 
with it. His positive arguments are as follow : first, it is 
certain that the Attics used ttoCo for ttolw : but the tragic 
writers always produced its first syllable, and as they could 
not write 7rww, they expressed it with the diphthong, viz. : 
7roiw. He draws the same inference with respect to aid 
from analogy. Secondly, he cites a passage from an etymo* 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA 



391 



'logos quoted by Koenius on Gregorius, (de dialect is), in 
which express mention is made of the conception of the first 
syllable of ael, and which he maintains would not hajve found 
place in the enumeration, had it been possible for it to be 
doubtful. To this, however, Porson replies in his Supple- 
ment, by restoring what he conceives to have been the true 
reading of the passage in question, viz. ; sKTZTajuizvov. Her- 
mann quotes it avvzGTaXfxivov. 

4. Porson defends the third canon on the ground of ana- 
logy, which requires the short vowel in the indicative, and 
the long in the subjunctive, the penults of the first and third 
persons being short in the former case, and long in the 
latter. To the canon itself Hermann advances no objection, 
but only to the argumeut by which it is supported. Instead 
of being required by analogy, he looks on it as not repugnant 
thereto ; arguing thus : if Tvirrrj, which is derived from tvtt- 
Ttai, be changed into tvtttzi, the alteration does not de- 
prive the indicative of a vowel which is peculiar to it : but 
if ru7rr>7, the derivative of Tvirrriai, underwent the same 
change, the subjunctive would lose the vowel which analogy 
requires it should retain. The question, therefore, as it re- 
gards the indicative is, what analogy permits, not what it 
demands : the subjunctive, on the contrary, allows of no al- 
ternative. Porson replies to this criticism, by merely re- 
marking, that the Attics would certainly prefer the ortho- 
graphy which served for the distinction of moods, when 
in one of them they had the choice of both. 

5. The fourth canon, which respects the non-omission of 
the augment in Attic Greek, is founded by Porson on the 
extreme paucity of the examples which occur of its rejection, 
and the greater number of these, viz. three, being found 
in the Baechse of Euripides, the text of which is in a most 



S02 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



corrupt state. In the supplement he afterwards modified 
his conclusion on this point, making an exception in the in- 
stance of \pr\v, which was used as well as lxpn v on ^ le 
Attic stage, by both tragic and comic writers. With re- 
gard to a few other words which appear to drop the augment, 
it may be said, that they cannot drop that which they never 
had. Thus, the Attics always say avtoya, not yvwya, but 
resume the augment in the pluperfect ; similarly, to icaOe- 
Zofxrjv, Ka6f)/uir}v, KaOevdov, the tragic writers do not prefix 
the augment ; the comic prefix or omit indifferently. The 
Attics sometimes admit a double augment, as in ^v£(t^oju»?v, 
avri^xofJinv, both of which are in use in tragic writers. 

Hermann thus replies to Porson on this point. First, it 
is very improbable that the tragic poets, who borrowed so 
largely from the ancients, for instance, in the introduction 
of Doric forms into the choruses, and in certain cases even 
into the senary, should have refrained from their practice in 
the case of the augment, the omission of which might prove 
on occasion a matter of much convenience. Secondly, the 
rarer the instances are of undoubted omissions of the aug- 
ment, the more we are bound to ascertain that this has not 
been done unadvisedly, or without regard to some fixed law 
or condition. Thirdly, he notices a certain inaccuracy of 
expression in Porson's announcement of this canon, who, 
while he holds the non-exclusion of the augment from tragic 
composition, as demanded by the genius of the Attic dia- 
lect, has forgotten that the same argument is not available 
in the case of the choric parts, which are composed in the 
Doric. He cites various instances confirmative of this from 
Sophocles, and iEschylus supplies not a few. As far as 
regards the senary he partly assents to the opinion of Por- 
son ; he holds the possibility of dispensing with it to be 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 893 

undoubted, but limits it to those cases which could not be 
introduced into iambic verse accompanied with it, such as 
are words that exhibit in their augmented form an antis- 
past, or other feet not in unison with that measure. This 
he confirms by several examples from .ZEschylus, Sophocles, 
and Euripides. But wherever the addition of the augment 
opposed no obstacle to the admission of the word into the 
verse, he holds it as certain that it was never dispensed with 
in the senary. A principle of emendation, which Hermann 
lays down, and applies to the present case, may be re- 
marked ; it was suggested by Porson's corrections of two 
passages, one in the Hecuba, (578.) and the other in the 
Persee, (311.) and is this ; as in each dipodia, the first arsis 
is more vehement in its ictuation, so in the third, it is to be 
preserved more especially in those words, the sense of which 
was to be conveyed with distinctness and emphasis to the 
hearer. 

6. In the second and more important part of the preface, 
Porson investigates the laws of iambic, trochaic, and ana- 
pwstic verse. The process by which he infers the inadmis- 
sibility of an anapaest beyond the first foot has been stated 
in chap. 6. sect. 2. subsect. 18. He reasons, from an induc- 
tion of particulars, with the view of establishing the point 
that this foot was inadmissible into the third seat of the 
trimeter ; this induction is grounded on an examination of 
seven passages in iEschylus, and four in Sophocles, all ap- 
pearing to contradict the canon, yet capable of being made 
consistent with it by easy emendation. These emendations 
are worth consideration on account of certain grammatical 
rules laid down by Porson. 

The following are the verses, which seem to violate the 
canon. 



394? THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

iEsch. Prom. 246. Kat fxrjv <j)i\oig IXeuvhg uaopav lyw. 
Agam. 664*. "HptiKov' at cte KepiOTVTrovpsvai j3iet. 
Choep. 421."Eko^£ kojul/ulov "Aptiov, ut& Kiamag. 
„ 654*. Eiirep tyiXo&vog Igtlv AlyiaQov j3ta. 
Eumen. 896. Iiaar\q aitrifiov o&og' ^e\ov $£ gv. 

Suppl. 800. llpog ov vifyy) Bl vdpr)\a yiyverai xuov. 
In Plut. de Oonsol. p. 106. "Oeirep fiiyiarov lafia tcjv 

7To\\(Jt)V KaKWV. 

Soph. Ajac. 524. Ova av yivoiro ttoO' ovrog evytvrig avrjp. 
(Ed. T. 248. KaKov Kaicwg viv ajuoipov eicrplxpai fiiov. 
Philoct. 1288. IIwc uirag ; ovk apa dsvrzpov ^oXovjUL^Oa ; 
In Hesycli. Tov avTiirXaaTov tyzi vop,ov KEk^rjKOTWV. 

7. The principle of his correction in the first example is 
the formation of adjectives in uvog from substantives in oc 
pure, namely, that the Attic writers never admitted £ before 
the diphthong, even in anapaestic or dactylic measure, 
where its admission would be very convenient. Thus from 
Slog is formed Stivog, from kAe'oc, tcXtivog, from eXtog, ZXu- 
vog. These Attic forms have been changed into Ionic by 
ignorant transcribers, who were acquainted with scarcely 
any kind of metre but the Homeric. Thus the anapaest is 
removed from the third place by the substitution of iXetvbg 
for eXesivog. 

8. The principle of his emendation in the second passage 
is, that compounds of Ktpag do not admit w, but either wpag 
is retained entire, which is the case before the labials ]3 and 
(j) : or sometimes the last syllable of the old genitive Kepeog 
is dropped, sometimes the last letter of the old nominative 
KEpog. The Attics, therefore, use KtpacrfioXog, KsptaXtcrig, 
Kepoj5aT7]g : similarly, by the substitution of KepoTvirovfxevai, 
a tribrach is introduced in place of the anapaest. The same 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 395 

law of composition holds good in the case of Kpiag also, thus 
we always find KpwrrdjXrjg, not KpetJTrwX^g, &c. &c. 

9. The third passage is corrected either by reading, with 
Blomfield, "Eko^' " ' Apuov ko^juov, &c. ; or, which connects 
the sentence better, Kofijibv §' ckoi^' "Ajostov, &c. 

10. The fourth passage is corrected by the substitution 
of (piXo^ivrj 'ffTtv for cj)iX6^ev6g Igtiv. Aldus and Robor- 
tellus had edited <j>i\6%,zv §<mv, but incorrectly, inasmuch as 
when elision occurs between two vowels, of which the former 
is long, it must fall on the latter, as a long* vowel cannot 
be elided. The objection to this correction, viz. : that the 
Attics generally make adjectives of this kind, (derivatives 
and compounds, as airofiXeTTTog) of the same form in the 
masculine and feminine, is answered by proofs drawn from 
Theognis, Pindar, and Athenseus, that the ancients occa- 
sionally used the feminine termination. 

11. The anapaest is removed from the fifth passage by 
rejecting the diseresis of ol%vg, from which word the Attics 
always rejected.it, as also from the two nouns, o?e, olarog, 
and from the proper names OkXijc, OlXevg. 

12. With regard to the sixth passage, Porson adopts the 
reading of Aldus and Robortellus, viz. : vtyr] §' v$pr)Xa. As, 
however, the particle $e occurs in the preceding line, should 
the repetition of it be objected to, he observes that it is in 
opposition to what precedes, and has the force of aXXa. 
The meaning is : " would that my habitation were fixed in 

* Hermann extends this to diphthongs, and thus asserts that o» ly£, 
which frequently commence the trimeter, should be written ot >yw. He 
grounds this extension on the practice of the Attic poets, which was 
never to shorten diphthongs in iambic verses, nor tolerate hiatus, unless 
in the instance of a long and ictuated syllable, and even then only in 
epiphonemata. 



296 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

the aether, but one where the watery clouds are converted 
into snow !" the chorus of Danaids thus restraining its wish, 
lest it should seem to aspire to the lot of the Gods. Por- 
son, however, gives another correction, from which the 
particle is excluded, and which Scholefield adopts, viz. : 
Upbg ov \i(i)V v$pr}\a yiyv&Tai vl$r\. 

IS. In the seventh passage, read p£y' 1st lafxa, as Gro- 
tius has corrected it ; or, "Oantp piyioTov^apfiaKov iroWiov 
KdKwv, as, probably, the word iap,a belongs to a later age, 
and was unknown to the old tragic writers. 

14. The eighth verse may be corrected by transposition in 
several ways : 

vk av 7TQU ovtoq tvyevrjQ ytvoir avrip. 

Ovjc av yivoiT avr)p ttoO^ ovtoq evyzvriQ. 

Ovtc av yzvoffi ovtoq ttot evyevrJQ avrjp. 
But a MS. of Suidas in the library of Corpus Christi Col- 
lege, Oxford, removes every difficulty, by reading, with the 
exception of ov-iru) for ovttotz, a common error, Ourrore 
yivoiT av ovtoq svyevriQ avnp. Hermann has produced 
from the Codex Augustanus another reading, viz. : 0{/k av 
yivoiT*W* ovtoq evyeviJQ avi]p. 

15. The ninth passage may be corrected by expunging, 
as Burton does, the pronominal enclitic viv, which is not ne- 
cessary to the sense ; Porson, however, considers the pleo- 
nasm of viv, so elegant, and so expressive of individuality, 
that he prefers retaining it, and introducing a tribrach in- 
stead of an anapaest, by reading apopov. This pleonasm of 
vi v may be paralleled with that of oye in Homer, the addi- 
tion of which marks a more exact individuality than would 
have been the case without it ; for instance, y, 409. 

16. In the tenth passage, for ovk apa read ap"* ov, or 
erase the negative particle ovk. The former correction he 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 897 

thinks nearer the truth, though in such interrogative for- 
mulae the tragedians add or omit the negative indifferently, 
whereas in English it is necessarily retained. 

1 7. The eleventh passage is corrected by reading vo/jiov 

18. The license of introducing an anapaestic proper name 
into any seat of the senary, excepting the last, is converted 
by Porson into an argument, that they abstained from ana- 
paests in the third and fifth seats in all cases but that now 
mentioned ; for if these feet could legitimately be introduced 
into such places, they should have been distributed so as to 
avoid the even ones, whereas it is certain that proper names 
were admitted into all the seats both even and odd. The 
same conclusion also follows from the practice they ob- 
served of distributing the syllables of anapaestic or dactylic 
proper names over different feet, so as to avoid the obnox- 
ious measures, at least in all cases where no absolute neces- 
sity existed for their admission into the verse. 

19. Porson's argument for the exclusion of the anapaest 
from the fifth seat of the senary, as also the exception to 
his general rule, in the case of proper names, have been 
stated. His argument is this ; if it be excluded from the 
third, it must from the fifth, for the fifth does not even 
admit of a dactyl, to which the third has no antipathy ; 
therefore a fortiori, if the third rejects an anapaest, the 
fifth must also. Without essentially impugning his doctrine 
on these points, Hermann objects to the conclusiveness of 
the argument ; 1 st, because it is founded on a presumed 
analogy between the anapaest and dactyl, which does not 
in fact subsist ; 2dly, because the constitution of iambic verse 
is still more adverse to the introduction of anapaests into the 
third than into the fifth seat. 



898 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

20. Hermann establishes the first of these points, by 
showing that any argument from the dactyl would prove 
too much, for the relation subsisting between the dactyl and 
tribrach in iambic verse is such as to make any conclusion 
respecting the anapaest from the former lead by necessary 
inference to a similar one with regard to it from the latter 
of those feet, which, considering their evident diversity, 
would be absurd. This relation between the dactyl and 
tribrach results from the adiaphorous nature of the first 
syllable of the former, by which it is possible to regard it as 
short ; and is confirmed by the fact that whilst numerous 
examples occur both of dactyls and tribrachs in the third 
seat, no instance of the dactyl occurs in the fifth, and ex- 
tremely few of the tribrach ; and all these he easily corrects, 
confining, however, his corrections to the diverbial parts of 
the dramas, leaving untouched those trimeters which occur 
in the choruses, on the principle of their admitting a less 
restrained metre. This rareness of the occurrence of the 
tribrach in the fifth place strongly confirms the analogy 
between it and the dactyl, and more particularly so, as a 
similar reason can be assigned for their non- admission, 
which is, that in trimeters which exhibit a resolution of the 
arsis of the fifth foot, the concluding word is mostly one of 
four syllables. The rule in such cases generally is, that the 
last syllable of the preceding word should be short, and with 
this the introduction of a dactyl would be inconsistent. — 
This relation between the dactyl and tribrach is additionally 
confirmed by the consideration that the principle which 
excludes them from the fifth seat ceases in both instances 
to exert that power in the third. The voice, in recitation, 
being more vigorous at the commencement of the verse, 
admitted a resolution of the long syllable with greater fa- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 399 

cility than at the end, where, in consequence of its being 
weaker, it is much more difficult to augment the rapidity 
and force of the number. It is indeed a general rule, that, 
in all kinds of verse, much less license is allowed at the end 
than at the beginning in the* interchange of long and short 
syllables. 

That there is no analogy between the dactyl and anapaest 
is evident from this, that the dactyl is substituted for the 
spondee assimilated in time to the iambus, that is, with its 
first syllable adiaphorous, and consequently capable of being 
accounted short ; whereas the anapaest can never be substi- 
tuted for the spondee, otherwise we should be forced to 
allow of the essentially long quantity of the first syllable of 
the spondee, and therefore that it never could be a repre- 
sentative of the corresponding one of the iambus ; inasmuch 
as it could not be adiaphorous, and so capable of being 
reckoned short, and at the same time be resolvable into two 
short syllables. 

His second point, viz., that the constitution of iambic 
verse is still more adverse to the introduction of anapaests 
into the third than into the fifth seat, he proves from the 
circumstance of the third seat being generally that of the 
caesura, and thus an anapaest in that seat would introduce 
two short syllables into the verse instead of the caesura, or, 
to express it in his own language, would close the first order 
of the trimeter with a resolution of the doubtful syllable. 

21 . Hermann considers the anapaest as the representative, 
not of the spondee, but of the base foot itself, or the iambus, 
with which, though it disagrees in absolute quantity (and 
thus is essentially repugnant to tragic verse, and is, with the 
exception of some special instances, excluded from it,) it 
may yet agree in rhythmical, or that which is relative to the 



400 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

number of the verse ; and thus it is admissible into every 
seat of the senary but the last, as is proved by the practice 
of the comic poets, and, in particular instances, by that of 
the tragic also. Its exclusion from the last seat he attributes 
to a cause the opposite to what warrants its introduction 
into the remaining ones, namely, the weakened energy of 
the number, which would render the admission of any mea- 
sure not in unison with it disagreeable to the ear, as well as 
unfit for enunciation. Thus it appears, that in this part of 
his. metrical theory Hermann differs from Porson in three 
important respects : first, in regarding the anapaest as a sub- 
stitute for the iambus and not for the spondee ; secondly, in 
rejecting the analogy of the dactyl, on which analogy Porson's 
argument is grounded ; thirdly, in esteeming the anapaest as 
admissible into all seats of the trimeter, excepting the last. 
Hephaestion also admits the anapaest into the third and fifth 
places. 

22. With regard to the doctrine itself \ Hermann's opinion 
is, that the anapaest is injurious "gravitati numerorum,'" 
by which he means the proper rhythmical character of the 
verse, and therefore, whilst there is not any absolute viola- 
tion of the iambic metre in its admission, its introduction is 
only to be sanctioned by the necessity of the case, in words 
the use of which is unavoidable. These are, in the first 
place, proper names, and in the second, such classes of 
terms as contribute to the energy of expression, the rejec- 
tion of which, therefore, would be too great a concession to 
the more rigid laws of versification. It is allowed, however, 
that examples of this license, though they occasionally occur, 
are exceedingly rare, in consequence of the richness of the 
language, which enabled the poet to select that amongst 
many synonymes which was best suited to the measure. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 401 

23. We have seen that Hermann differs from Porson 
with respect to the non-omission of the augment : thus he 
looks upon the initial anapaest, that results from the addi- 
tion of the augment, as illegitimate, and decides that the 
augment should give place to the more regular structure of 
the verse. As he is at issue with Porson on this point, he 
lays down explicitly his heads of argument, which are, the 
more graceful march of the verse, the consent of the more 
ancient copies, the superior effect it imparts to the enuncia- 
tion, and more especially, a comparison of those passages, 
in which, from synapheia taking place, the augment may be 
dispensed with by elision. The last is his principal argu- 
ment ; he concludes from the numerous cases in which the 
augmented word is preceded by a long vowel or diphthong 
in the verse immediately before, that this was a provision 
for eliding the augment, as in such cases the elision falls 
upon it, and hence, that the augment was dispensed with in 
those cases also, which admitted of no elision, that is, when 
a consonant ended the preceding verse. 

24. In the case of proper names, the anapaest, according to 
Hermann, should not only be comprised within one name, 
but should have a long syllable going before it in that name, 
as 'AvTiyovrji 'Ityiyivua ; were it distributed over two words, 
it would argue great unskilfulness on the part of the poet, 
who could not, by a proper disposition of them, avoid the 
injurious measure ; were it composed of the first syllables 
of the name, it might have been avoided by placing a short 
syllable before, and thus introducing a tribrach ; were a 
short syllable to precede it in the same name, that again is 
preceded either by a long or a short one, in the first of 
which cases nothing is more easy than to free the verse from 
the faulty measure, and, in the second, either a dactyl or a 

D D 



402 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

tribrach must precede an anapaest; if either take place, 
according to Dawes' canon the law of the iambic trimeter 
would be violated. 

25. The extension of the anapaest to other cases, besides 
proper names, is, though very rare, not unwarranted by ex- 
amples, of which Hermann cites four, viz. : three from 
JEschylus, and one from Euripides, The reason he assigns 
for allowing the license in these cases is, that the trimeters 
occur in the midst of melic systems, and admit in cOnse- 
sequence a greater freedom in the distribution of the num- 
bers. This is demonstrated by the frequent occurrence of 
the tribrach in such verses, which makes it not improbable 
that the anapaest, a foot of like rapidity, may have been 
admitted also. But in the instances cited from ./Eschylus, 
there seems to be an additional reason, which may be termed 
a poetical necessity, that is, the obligation the writer was 
under to select among many words that were similar in 
meaning, and not wholly destructive of the regular metre, 
that which conveyed his sense with most emphasis, or was 
best adapted to the circumstances of the persons of the 
drama, even though the exacter rhythm of the verse were 
injured by it. 

26. The three canons which Porson has laid down for his 
guidance in the arrangement of the choric systems, are, 
first, to reduce them, as far as it was possible, to those kinds 
of verse which are most frequently used by lyric poets ; 
secondly, to prefer those arrangements which exhibit the 
most frequent recurrence of the same, or of similar species 
of verse ; thirdly, to effect, as far as possible, an accurate 
correspondence between strophe and ah tistrophe^ He ad- 
duces examples of this from the Hecuba^ (9^1. 2. 5.) 
which are ionic a majore, each being composed of a 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 403 

third epitrite and a choriambus with the base foot inter- 
posed. 

27. On these canons Hermann animadverts. The con- 
sequence of observing the first would be, in very many in- 
stances, a corruption of passages which require no emen- 
dation whatever, by adjusting them to the standard of other 
metrical types, on the integrity of which no certain decision 
can be pronounced, in consequence of our possessing no 
certain knowledge, at least in the majority of instances, of 
the kinds of verses which were most in use amongst the 
lyric writers. As to the second canon, he objects to it cate- 
gorically as quite useless, unless accompanied with others 
that may aid us in determining where the beginnings and 
endings of verses are to be placed. With respect to the 
metres of Euripides, which are much less regular than those 
of the other tragic writers, he thinks that his practice Was 
defined by certain peculiarities, which it would be necessary 
to investigate before our attempting any arrangement of his 
melic systems. With regard to the third canon, Hermann 
lays it down as a principle, that antistrophes were absent 
from those parts of the drama in which action and emotion 
were predominant, whilst, on the contrary, those that exhi- 
bited the gentler Orders of feeling were composed according 
to the laws of the antistrophica. He also expresses it as 
his opinion, that no passage of any length occurs in the 
tragic poets or Aristophanes, wherein melic metres appear, 
which is not written in antistrophic verses. Matthise 
charges Hermann with a violation of his own rule, in emend- 
ing passages, for the purpose of reducing them to antistro- 
phica, which present a display of the more vehement 
affections, and consequently should be exempted from antis- 
trophic numbers. 



404 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

28. Matthiae also disapproves of a rule of emendation 
which Porson especially recommends as the safest to adopt, 
viz. : the transposition of words. Perhaps, in pronouncing 
this opinion, he refers to such changes as are of no benefit 
to the construction, or are purely arbitrary ; as Porson as- 
signs a very satisfactory reason for its adoption, viz. : the 
frequent mistakes of copyists in the arrangement of the 
parts of sentences. 

29. With respect to the license which tragic writers al- 
lowed themselves in the use of dialects, Porson observes, 
that ionic forms are admissible, .but those only of certain 
kinds, and rarely, such as, Zuvog, /novvog, yovvara, Kovpog, 
Sovpi ; that caution should be used in this particular, as the 
ignorance of transcribers introduced more from Homer ; 
that, with respect to the Doric dialect, which is most usual 
in choruses, there is less difficulty, but no certainty ; for no 
MSS., not even the best, are consistent in retaining the 
Doric forms in the melic portions of the drama ; that his 
rule has been to restore them to the text, whenever any one 
MS. of respectability sanctioned it. 

30. Hermann objects, with much reason, to any such 
compliance with the caprice of copyists as Porson's rule 
would authorize, and lays down the following canons for 
our guidance. 

(1). In melic verses, dactylic, and dochmiac, the tragic 
writers always make use of the Doric dialect, but of a pecu- 
liar kind. This is observed in consequence of an injudicious 
admission of the forms of this dialect by critics, and from 
which those writers usually abstained. 

(2). In the legitimate anapaestic systems, the use of the 
Doric dialect depends on their connexion with other verses 
in which that dialect is used, or the reverse. If these sys- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 405 

terns stand separate, and unconnected with parts of the 
drama to which that dialect is appropriated, the common 
language is to be preferred ; but if a close connexion subsist 
between them and such portions, the forms to be selected 
are the Doric. 

(3). In the anapsestic systems which are considered not 
legitimate, that is, in which dimeter catalectic lines com- 
posed of spondees are the leading metres, the Doric dialect 
is always found. But the Attic is the one made use of in 
cases wherein but a few catalectic verses are interposed in a 
legitimate system. 

(4). The rule with respect to iambic trimeters which 
occur combined with dochmiac, or other melic verses, varies 
in the same manner as that for the anapsestic metres. The 
common dialect prevails in them whenever they are allotted 
the prominent place, and form the basis of the dialogue : 
but in cases where these iambic lines are so combined with 
the melic parts as to form one whole with them, the Doric 
is the one preferred. 

The general principle on which those rules of Hermann 
are founded is, that the presence of the Doric dialect in 
tragic compositions is to be accounted for by the excitements 
of the speakers, which are incidental to the several pieces, 
and which demand, in proportion to their intensity, a loftier 
and more unusual form of expression. In illustration of his 
rule respecting trimeters, he adduces the passage in the 
Hecuba, commencing at the 675th verse, in which they 
occur with melic lines interposed, namely, dochmiac, tro- 
chaic, &c. He considers Dorisms to be inadmissible into 
these, in consequence of their forming a principal part of 
the dialogue, and accordingly he replaces dUa in v. 706. by 
Sucrj, as the reading appears in Cod. A. On the contrary 



406 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

he admits them into those of the Trachiniae, 828. 833. sqq. 
where the trimeters are subordinate to the melie parts, and 
form with them one system. 






CHAPTER VIII. 



EXCERPT A CRITICA. 
I. 

Dawes* Eleven Canons: with Tate's Notes. 

1. "*Af cannot be joined to 7r£jo«H& ,v \ [Miscell. Crit. 
p. ii. Ed. B. p. ii.] 

The particle av, giving the idea of a contingent or condi- 
tional event, goes with the past tenses only of the indicative 
mood ; out of which number Trepioldz is excluded, as being 
strictly what Clarke calls the present perfect tense. (Vid. 
ad Iliad. A. v. 37). 

(1). ltvtttov av — I should have been striking. 

(Sometimes translate, I should have been stricken). 

(2). htTv(f>zLv av — I should have done striking. 

> '' * rw ^ a [ av — I should have stricken. 

ZTV7TOV J 

The same, mutatis mutandis, for the past tenses ofOvijaKoj. 

2. " The word ovy and the like, when accompanied with 
av, are construed with the subjunctive, not with the opta- 
tive." [M. C. p. 79. Ed. B. p. 82.] 

The passage itself, from which this remark arises, may 
easily be found in the Anabasis of Xenophon. (Lib. I. 5. 9.) 
AriXog r\v 6 Kvpog (tttbvSwv itaaav tt\v oSov — vo/ii'£a)v, ocry 



408 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

fllv CIV OaTTOV sXOot, TOGOVTCO UTTapaGKEVaGTOTEpt^ j3a<xtX£t 

fxa^uaOai. k. r. X. 

By transposing av, and by altering the future juaxacrfla*, 
which does not keep that particle's company, into fiax^Oat, 
Dawes (with the approbation of Porson) has corrected the 
passage thus : vo/xi£wv av, ogoj fxlv Oarrov iXQoi, r. a. |3. 
fidx^Oai — k. t. X. The particle av, thus posited, refers to 
the two infinitives /naxtaOai and crvvayiipzaQai, and gives to 
both a future force. 

(1). The position of av, as above, with verbs of thinking 
followed by an infinitive mood to which it refers, is very 
common in Attic Greek ; and Dawes abundantly shows it 
from Xenophon. 

(2). w O<rw and similar words are much used with av and 
the subjunctive mood, it is true ; but, according to circum- 
stances which will explain themselves, they are used with 
the optative, and with the indicative also sometimes. 

a. Whatever part you shall have acted towards your parents, 
your children also will act toivards you ; and with good reason. 

Olog irep av TT£p\ Tovg yovug yi vy, toiovtol kcu oi cravTov 
irmStg TTtpl gI yzv7]GOVTai' etKOTwg. 

fi. Act such apart towards your parents, as you coidd wish 
your own children to act towards yourself. 

ToiovTog yiyvov irtpl tovq yovug, olovg av evZaio wepl 
GEavrbv yiyvEGQai Tovg Gavrov iraldag. 

y. There is not a man living whom he would have less 
thought of attaching than him. 

Ovk. egtiv, Iw bvTiva av t\ttov, rj tVi tovtov, r/XOev. 

Of the two passages which shall be given from Demos- 
thenes, the first shows a syntax very common and legitimate 
in Attic prose ; while the second exhibits two instances, the 
one correct, the other, at least, suspicious. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 409 

Kcu yap ovrog airam tovtoiq, olg av Tig fjieyav avrbv 17717- 
aaiTO, — tr IwiatyaXtcTTEpav avrriv [rriv MaKedovtKriv Svvajutv] 
KCLTtaKtvaKtv zavTtL). Olynthiac. A. §. 5. 

In the same section, the subjects of Philip, says the orator, 
Xvirovvrai Kal avvzywg TaXanriopovcnv, ovt £7ri rolg tpyoig, 
our £7Ti TOig avrojv icioig zwjizvoi biaTpipuv, ovv oa av 
TTopiaajGiv, ovrivg oirwg av Evvivvrai, ravr txovrtg SiaQtvOai, 

K£K\tl(Tfx£v(i)V TtOV IflTTOpldiV T(VV Iv TV) X C 'V^ ^ 4 " T ^ V ^XijlOV. 

Translate thus : Nor able to dispose of such articles as they 
may produce, in the way they might otherwise have it in their 
power to do, on account of the tear, fyc. <$fc. 

And to preserve the Atticism, read — 6Vwc av Svvaivro. 

(3). It is well known, that the following construction, 
suppresso av, is favored by the tragic writers. [R. P. ad 
Orest. v. 141.] "Ottov 0" 'AwoWujv oKaibg y, rivzg ootyoi ; 
Electr. Eurip. v. 972. But this suppression of av with the 
optative also deserves remark. 

Oi/k £cmv, otio fid^ova fiotpav 

Ne/^uatu', rj vol. Prom. Vinct. vv. 299. 300. 

The following passages demand a separate consideration : 

'Ev croi yap ta/nzv' avdpa <T w^eAelv, a<f wv 

"E^ot re ko\ cvvairo, KaWlGTOg 7T0VWV. (Ed. R. VV. 314. 5. 

EikTi KpariGTOv Zyv, oiriog Svvairo rig. Ibid. v. 979. 

And this, f A\X u fiovXei, e<pr], w 7rairire, Tjdeojg /us Qr\g^v, 
a<f)£g iravrag rovg Kar Ijxl mw/cav tca\ Stay iDviZtaQai, owwg 
ZKavTog to. KpariGTa Cvvairo. Cyropsedia. 

3. w ' The Attic style requires either wot rig <pvyri, or 
wot Tig av (f>vyoi. An optative verb following wot, woOev, 
wov, wwg, and similar interrogative particles, requires 
av; a subjunctive verb rejects it." [M. C. 207. Ed. 
B. 207.] 

The meaning of Dawes will be best understood, perhaps, if 



410 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

we take three ways of expressing nearly the same ideas by 
three different moods of the verb. 

a. 7rot Tpepojxai ; whither shall I betake myself? 

j3. not TpaTrtofjLai ; whither must . I betaJce myself? 

y. ttoX ng av rpairoiTO ; whither should one betake himself? 
[M. C. 75. 341. Ed. B. 78. 333.] 

(1). Under the class (j3) may be placed, 

'Eya> Se n nOlQi : Plut. But what must I do? 

'Eyib mojirCo t(£$£ y ; Ban. where iEschylus of Euripides, 
Must I hold my tongue for this coxcomb ? 

'Gig o^vOvfjLog ! <^£jO£, tl aoi AQi KaTCKfrayuv ; 
Well, what must I give you to eat ? 

DawesV account justly exhibits the first and second verbs 
thus used, not as of the present indicative serving instead 
of the future ; " but of the subjunctive, which has often the 
force of a future, but is more properly to be referred in its 
own proper sense to iva or xpv Iva understood." 

(2). So^wc kz\ev£Lq. firi rpiar^g (JLtadfiaTog 

Tov/nov [i£Ta<?xuv, aXX iXzvOzptog Oaviv. Herac. 558. 559. 

" Oavu) is the subjunctive, as often elsewhere. Every 
one knows that the first person plural subjunctive often 
occurs in the sense of our let us die. More seldom, and yet 
not very seldom, the first person singular is used in the 
sense of our let pie die. In Med. 1275, most of the Edd. 
properly give irapiXQw Sopovg without an interrogation." 
P. Elmsley ad loc. 

In Porson^ Medea, the passage stands thus : 
IlapzXQu) dofiovg ; apri%ai (povov 

AOKEL fJLOL TEKVOig* 

which would require to be translated with somewhat less 
force, thus : " Shall J not enter the house ?~—I am resolved 
to save the children from murder? 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 411 

4. Kat firiv o7ror£ ri GKtvapiov rov dsairorov 
*Y(f)d\ov, lyuj (T£ \av9aveiv hiroiovv ad. Plut. 1139. 

" Iambics and trochaics do not allow of the hiatus in the 
second verse. Besides, birore v<pei\ov, [ When you actually 
had stolen one specific thing,] liroiow au is a solecism. Eead 
'Y0£W, that is, 'Y^Aoto." [M. C. 216. Ed. B. 
215, 6.] 

Fielding and Young thus translate the passage fairly 
enough : 

Why, when yon used to filch any mssel from your master, 
I always assisted you in concealing it, [the theft.] 

The nature of those circumstances which demand this 
usage of ottotz with the optative mood, if not sufficiently clear 
from the instance thus given, is determined by several 
other instances which Dawes has produced, of oitote simi- 
larly employed. 

Of slttov also in the same usage preceding the optative, 
with the preterimperfect tense of the indicative mood in the 
other member of the sentence, Dawes has given sufficient 
proof. [M. C. 256. Ed. B. 253.] 

"AAAr? $£ KaXXrj ddyfiariuv (rrjOox^w/XEurj, 
EinOY <j>i\wv BAE^EIEN olismm Sl/iac, 
EKAAIEN n SvtjTYivog. Soph. Trach. 924, 

And wandering up and down the house, whenever she saw a 
favorite domestic, so oft the wretched dame woidd iceep. 

The particle £7r£t occurs in a similar construction. Kat ol 
jj.lv ovoi, £7T£t 7rArj(xta£ot 6 i7T7roc, TavTa. liroiow. Xen. 
Anab. p. 45. ex emend atione Porsoni ; quern vide ad Eur. 
Pharn. 412. 

5. " Verbs of the form of adaoi are never used in an opta- 
tive sense, or joined with k€v or av ; but are always put 
after past tenses in a future sense. 



412 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

'Eyw yap wv fitipaKiov HnEIAHS* ot(. 

Elg tovq Sucaiovg kcl\ ao<povg Kai KOGfx'iovQ 

Movovg BA AIOIMHN.— Pl h . 88."[M. 0.103. Ed. B.105. | 

For I when a stripling threatened that I would visit the 
honest, and wise, and respectable, — and no others. 

(1). If this dictum be true, and I have met with nothing 
to disprove it, all the other usages of the future optative 
must be struck off the roll without delay. 

a. Zfaoire : fare ye well, " For the future is not used in 
this construction." 

]3. juaXXov av lao'i^v, is a form equally unknown to the 
Greeks. 

(2). The future infinitive, it has been already remarked, 
keeps no company with the particle av. The aversion to 
irp\v preceding it in what is called government, seems pretty 
much the same. Elmsley (ad Iph. Aul. v. 1549.) has justly 
suggested, that irplv awapa^iadai K.6fxag, is a solecism. The 
looser usage of the aorist infinitive with av or without it, 
affords no excuse for breaking down the narrow fence of its 
neighbour. 

(3). For the same reason, Elmsley, ad Iph. T. v. 937. 
appears to me justly to condemn KsXzvcrOeig Spdtreiv as not 
legitimate Greek ; while (ad CEd. R. v. 272.) he does not 
with equal decision second the scholiast, who, in reference to 
zvypfxai in v. 269. writes thus — (pQaprivai del ypatpuv, ov 
(pOepuctOai. 

The syntax of the line 

'AAA' w§£ TTpoiOrjKev hXzvQspiriQ a7ro\av<mv 
is condemned by Dawes, on the very same principle. " For 
neither can a future follow the word TrpofflriKtv" [M. 0. 
iii. Ed. B. iii.] 

(4). In the syntax of fiiXkui, the infinitive mood following 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 413 

it most usually occurs in the future tense, but not univer- 
sally. The authority of Porson, ad Orest. v. 929. on v. 
1594. juAAw KTavziv, has pronounced, " that the aorist is 
properly put after the verb fiiWeiv" Elmsley, ad Heraclid. 
v. 710. gives his sentence thus on. the subject: "Wherever 
ypafciv or ypfyuv can be put by a slight alteration for 
ypaxpai, I think the change should be made." 

6. " The optative, when joined with certain words, as 
Iva, 6<j>pa, /uir), can only be subjoined to preterite verbs, and 
answers to the Latin Amarem ; the subjunctive on the 
other hand is subjoined only to verbs of a present or future 
tense, and answers to the Latin Amem? [M. C. 85. 268. 
321.] 

Generally speaking, where a purpose, end, result, is 
denoted by the help of the particles, Iva, 6<ppa, jut), &c. 

(1). If both the action and the purpose of it belong en- 
tirely to time past, the purpose is denoted by the optative 
mood only. 

(2). If the action belong to time present or future, the 
purpose is denoted by the subjunctive and not otherwise, as, 
fLiavOavio *iva Siddcncu). 

Thus, it is right to say, ziropzvOr}, ( Lva fxaOoi, 

And Tropevtrai or TropevotTai, 'ivu fjiaOy. 

Yet a few remarks may be useful to assist the young 
scholar in distinguishing between real and apparent excep- 
tions : for no one mistakes the following modes of syntax as 
legitimate : 

<jiv\aTT£T£ VVV, OTTWQ p.l) OiyOlTO. 

tote yap ttyvXaTTZTE, 6tt(*)q firj oixriTat* 
(1). Since the Greek aorist, like the Latin preterite, is 
not only taken in the narrative way, as zypaipa, I wrote, 
but sometimes also in the use of our present perfect, / aav$ 



414 THE GRECIAN EBAMA. 

written ; it may in its latter usage be followed by the sub- 
junctive. 

(2). Since, in narrating past events, the Greek writers, 
particularly the tragics, often employ the present in one 
part, with the aorist in the other part of the sentence, as 
well as vice versa, we are not to wonder, if a syntax like 
the following be sometimes presented, with oarig, or with "va. 
Phoen. 47. KYipvacrei, [revera, Ikyjpv&v] ocrng fxaOoi. k. t. A. 
" He proclaimed such a reward to any one, that should 
discover the meaning of the riddle." 

(3). If the verb denoting the principal act, while it is 
true of the present time which it directly expresses, be vir- 
tually true of the past also in its beginning and continu- 
ance, the leading verb may stand in the present tense, 
and yet the purpose be denoted by the optative mood. 

(4). In passages where either syntax would be legitimate 
. in other respects, some peculiarity of the case determines 
the choice at once. 

f H yap viovg IpirovTag evfisvu tth^, 
! 'Anavra iravdoKOiiiju irai^dag ftrXov, 
'EflpfyciT, olKKTTrjpag a.(JTridr}(j)6povg 
Iltcrroi'c, oiTwg yevoiaOe wpbg \p£og rods. 

S. Theb. vv. 17-20. 
There is nothing in vv. 19, 20. to condemn the reading 
yivnaOe. " She hath reared, that you may become." But 
m vv. 17, 18. the decision lies. "She reared you in tender 
and helpless infancy, that you might become one day her 
loyal 'guards."'' 

Blomfield gives an ingenious, and perhaps just, mode of 
settling the point in similar passages* ''Say that the sub- 
junctive was sometimes used of a thing past, still they never 
used the optative of a thing present.'" Ad S . Theb . 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 415 

7. " Ov fxrj are construed either with the future indica- 
tive or the second aorist subjunctive.'" [M. 0. 222=221.] 

" ^OTrwc, either with or without fii), is construed with 
the second aorist, active or middle, and with the first aorist 
passive." [M. 0. 228.] 

" Ov with a subjunctive requires fir)" [M. 0. 340.] • 

According to Dawes, then, the following forms of syntax 
are correct. 

(1). Oil fir) SvviiizvrjQ eery QiXoig. 

(2). 'AAA' ovttot V£ efiovye /mi) pciOyg tocs. 

(3). Aidoi\ ottwq fxr) Tev^ofiai KaKO^alfiovog. 

(4). SK£7rr£oy, oirwg tovto fiaOy. 

(5). StcSTrrcov, oiriog fxr) aiaOcjvTai ravra. 

(6). 3>uAa£cu, oiT(x)Q fir) TV(p9$g. 

And the following forms, amongst others, are not legiti- 
mate : 

(7). Ov fir) XrtpijGrjQ. Read, Ov jiir) \yip{]<jziQ. 

(8). "Owwq Oe tovto jar) Stdafypg jtiiidlva. Read, §$&%ug. 

(9). 'AAA 1 ovti fx tK(j)vyi)T£ Acu^pw nodi. Hec. 1038. 

Read, 'AAA 1 ovti p.r) 'KQvyiirs, " Dawesius sagaciter, licet 
minus recto.", R. P. With the great critic himself, there- 
fore, read^ 'AAA' ovti fxrj (pvyr\TZ. 

That ov does, not precede a verb of the subjunctive mood 
unless accompanied by ftr/, is true enough as an Attic canon. 
In the Ionic Greek of Homer, the other syntax is perfectly 
right, as Iliad. A. 262. Ou yap ttu) Toiovg i&ov avipag, 

Ol»C£ ICWJJLai. 

A very ingenious hint is started and ably defended by 
Elmsley, viz. " that when ov iur) is prefixed to the future, a 
note of interrogation ought to be added." He advances 
a similar hint on the particles ou/c ovv. 

8. "• The active fitQinfu is not construed with a genitive, 



416 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

nor the middle fxtOiEfjiai with an accusative ;" but vice versa 
[M. 0. 238.] 

This one instance, acutely observed, belongs to that nice 
analog}^, by which several other verbs in their active and 
middle uses are always distinguished. 

(1). jut^irjjut ai. a^>lr]fxi ai. fjitOUfiaL aov. injtUfiat aov. I 
part — myself from you. 

(2). tXafiov ai. l\a(56f.ir\v gov. I caught — myself ai you. 

(3). atya §' E^ofitv aro/ua. j3/0£T£wv £\zadai. To hold — 
ourselves by the statues. 

(4). f3f)6)(ovg airreiv. a^fi Tri-n-Xwv. You tvill fasten — 
yourself on my robes. 

(5). cvpt^s rr]v kvXlkcl. ov ttcllZoq opi^aro. He stretched 
—himself for his son. 

9. " If a woman, in speaking of herself, uses the plural, 
she uses also the masculine, and if she uses the masculine, 
she uses also the plural." [M. C. 317.] 

The strongest exception against this rule is in Hipp. 1107. 
Ed. Monk. Whoever will turn to the passage itself, and 
the note upon it in Monk's edition, will find that it is all a 
mere inadvertence of the poet,^ who either mistook himself 
at the moment for the Coryphsea, or hastily transferred 
from his loci communes a fine train of reflection, without 
considering in whose character it must be uttered. 

10. " In Iliad. Z. 479. 

ILal irori Tig uttoi, ' Uarpbg §' oye ttoXXov afxdvuv? 

'Ek 7roXijj.ov avtovTa 

the commentators make aviovra to depend on iSwv under- 
stood, but it really depends on zliroi, and the sentence is 
to be thus construed. " And one shall hereafter say o/him 
as he returns, or after be has returned." 
I will here add Aristoph. Nub. 1147 : 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



417 



Kai /not tov vlov, u fiepaOriKS tov \6yov 
^Eksivov, ti(p\ ov apTicog tlarjyayeg : 
" And tell me concerning your son, whether he has learnt." 
Kuster is wrong in saying here that vldv is put for the no- 
minative after the Attic form; 1 [M. 0. 149.] 

(1). This remark on what, for distinction s sake, should 
be called the Accusations de quo, has a range of great use- 
fulness, especially in the Attic poets. The following in 
Homer, Iliad. Z. 239. is rather unique : 

Elpo/uBvai naXdag re, KcuriyvriTOVQ re, ztclq re, 
Keu iruaiag. " h. e. irepl iraid(ov" Heyne. 
The Attics generally use the Accusations de quo, with 
what is technically called an indefinite sentence after it, as in 
the passage quoted above from Aristophanes. 

(2). But another syntax, less noticed, may be mentioned 
here, the Accusations rei oel facti, where the governing 
verb would otherwise require the genitive case. 

Mei£ov ti XPV% H £> tcu&ic f) azGwafjiivovs ; Phoen. 1226. 
— lav QvijGKOvrag rj TtTpivpivovg 

UvO^ee S. Theb. 228. 9. 

"Do you desire a greater blessing, than that your sons should 

be alive ? If you hear that any of ours are dying or wounded." 

Perhaps it may add some illustration to a matter not 

commonly remarked, if I refer to a correspondent class of 

expressions in the Latin language. 

Spretseque injuria formse. iEn. i. 
Ob iram interfecti ab eo domini. Livy, 21. s. 2. 
Injuria tov formam spretam fuisse. 
Iram IVekci tov interfectum fuisse ab eo dominum. 
That is, not injuria forma?, not iram domini; which 
words taken alone would convey _ ideas very different from 
those intended by Virgil and Livy, 

E E 



418 THE GIIECUN DBAMA. 

(3). Nor has it been duly noticed, that the neuter pro- 
nouns in Greek are favorable to a government in the accu- 
sative case, where the masculine or feminine would require 
the genitive. jauZov n xpyZzig affords an instance of what 
I wish to suggest. 

11. (j)tia\v «$' uvai 7ro\Xtov ayaOiov atZiog vfxlv 6 ttqiyityiq. 

" 'AyaOiov a^iog vjuuv is to me an unintelligible expression. 
Read ahtog for aZiog." [M. C. 254.] This appears to be 
an error of Dawes. The following are instances of the 
construction : 

f Hjuii> S' '-AxiWtvQ a^iog rifxrig, yvvat. Hec. 313. 
" Dignus Achilles, qui a nobis honorem accipiat." 
-r~ apoicrOe — - kvSqq TOiaSs TroXiTaig. S. Theb. 304, 5. 

Such is the happy emendation of Dr. Blomfield, who sup- 
ports it by Iliad A. 95. Ila<7t §c ke Tpibsam \aptv kcu kvBoq 
apoio. 

A similar passage occurs in the Iliad, 1. 303. vid. Heyn. 
in loc. 

'Q? a%iog uy] OavaTov ry iro\u. Xenoph. Mem. ad init. 
Xioaov irpiwixai aoi ra ^oijot'Sia ; Aeye. Acharn. 812. 
'QivritrofJiai ooi. Ibid. 815. 
Vide also Iliad. B. 186. E. 115. X. 119. 

In all these instances the proper rendering is, at me, of 
me, at my hands. It is a mode of speaking, to which the 
old English and .the- modern Scottish afford parallels in 
plenty. 

(1). Shall we receive good at the hand 'of God? &c. Job. 
ii. 10. 

(2). Ask at Moses and the Prophets. Logan. Sermons. 

Before concluding, I would suggest, that from what has 
been stated above, Brunck's translation of the passage in 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 419 

the Electra of Sophocles may derive some support. I am 
inclined to adopt it as right. 

Tlvi yap ttot av, w (j>i\ia yzvWXa, 

rrpoacpopav aKOvaatfi £7TO£, 

tivi (ppovovvTi Kct'ipia ; 
" A quo enim unquam, cara progenies, audire possim ali- 
quod conveniens mihi V [Mus. Orit. No. 4, pp. 519-535. J 



420 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



II. 

Por sorts Critical Canons, from the Classical Journal, 
vol SI, p. 136-142. 

1. The tragic writers never use pp for per, nor tt for oa. 
Thus they never said Xzppov^mav for Xepaovriaiav, nor 
wpdrTO) for 7rpatT(T(jj. 30. Hec. 8. 

2. In systems of anapaests they do not always use, nor 
do they always discard, the Doric dialect. Hec. 100. 

3. They are partial to the introduction of the particle tol 
in gnomes, or general reflections. Hec. 228.- 

4. The forms dvva, Sdpvq, in the 2nd pers. sing. pres. 
indie, from verbs in afxai are more Attic than Svvy. &c. 
Hec. 253. 

5. Dawes has too hastily asserted that no syllable can 
be made short by a scenic poet, in which the consonants 
/3X, y\, yp, yv, $fx, Sv, concur. This rule, though gene- 
rally true, is sometimes violated by iEschylus, Sophocles, 
and Aristophanes, but never by Euripides. Hec. 298. 

6. The Homeric -h§e is sometimes found in the tragic 
writers, contrary to the assertion of Valckenaer, Phcen. 
1683. See Here. Fur. 30. Hec. 323. 

7. The tragic writers loved the harsh and antiquated 
forms of words — they therefore preferred the first to the 
second aorist passive ; and the second aorist passive is con- 
sequently very seldom used : cnrriWdynv sometimes occurs. 
Hec. 335. 

8. The participle wy is seldom found in conjunction with 
another participle. Homer has iTnarapwov ntp lovra. Hec. 
358. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 421 

9. "Ottwq and uttmq fju) are generally joined with the 2nd 
person of the fut. tense, sometimes with the third, seldom 
with the first : bpariov laA, or some similar expression, 
may be conceived as understood in this idiom ; as Hec. 
398. 

10. Ft fitv tol : these three particles are very frequently 
met with together in Sophocles and Euripides : yi rot ti 
never. Hec. 598. 

11. Nejcooc is masculine, when it signifies the corpse 
of either a male or a female. Where vexpbv occurs in 
the neuter gender, Bos would understand crwfia. Hec. 
665. 

12. The accusative singular of Attic nouns in cue has 
the last syllable long. There are three exceptions to this 
rule in Euripides. Hec. 870. Electr. 599. 763. Also a 
vowel cannot be elided, unless it be short. Hec. 870. 

13. nou denotes rest, iroX motion: ira is used in both 
senses. Thus irov otckju, ttoT §1 j3acra ; Phil. 833. Hec. 
1062. 

14. Instead of ydzifxe v, $3hte, ydiaav^ the Attics used the 
contracted forms, $o/«v, $<tt£, yaav. Hec. 1094. 

15. Several verbal adjectives, as vttotttoq, ttigtoq, /uejU7T- 
toc, afjL(j)i7rXr]KTog, and some others, are found with an 
active as well as passive signification. Hec. 1117. 

] 6. The ancient Attic writers never used the neuter plu- 
ral with a verb plural, except in case of animals. Hec. 
1141. 

17. The particle jut) giving the sense of the imperative 
accompanies the 1st or 2nd aorists subjunctive, and the 
present imperative, but never the present subjunctive, or 
2nd aorist imperative. There are some few instances of /irj 
with the first aorist imperative. The Attic writers said, 



422 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

firi flippy, jurj Kajur?c, ju?7 jul/x^ou ;' sometimes, ^rj fxifxtyai ; but 
never, p-i) fxifx^ fxrj Kafxe. Hec. 1166. 

18. The first syllable of taog in the tragic and comic 
writers is always short : in composition it is sometimes long. 
Orest. 9. 

19. The Attic writers preserved some Doric and some 
Ionic forms in their dialect ; thus they always said, 'A0dvd, 
Kvvaydg, and not, 'Afl/ivij, Kvvqybg, &c. ; also juouvoe, ?e?foc, 
sometimes, instead of fiovog, Zivog. But though they had the 
form Kvvaybg and 'Afldra, they used icvvriy Itviq and 'Aflijveuct. 
Orest. 26. 

20. In the formula of adjuration, irpbg with a genitive 
case, the article with the noun is seldom omitted by the 
comic, and never expressed by the tragic writers. Orest. 92. 

21. Adjectives, such as /navidg, iddog, are of three gen- 
ders, though they are less frequently used in the neuter > 
dpofiam fi\e<pdpoig. Orest. 264. 

22. Tcicovcra is never used by Euripides absolutely for 
fiiirrip. Orest. 285. 

23. The active verb is often found instead of the middle, 
the personal pronoun being understood ; as, koi vvv avaKa- 
\vitt\ and now uncover, sc. yourself. Orest. 288. 

24. The tragic writers used the form in aipu), not in aiv'to : 
thus they said IxQaipM, not l\0aivw. But they used the 
form in aivw in preference to vaivb) ; thus they said Icryaivwt 
not laxvaivu- Orest. 292. 

25. G^oe, in the nominative and accusative singular, is 
not unfrequently a monosyllable, and very often in the other 
cases ; aartog is also sometimes found as a dissyllable. 
Orest. 393. 

26. The Attic writers made the penult, of comparatives 
in ib)v long; the other dialects had it short. Orest. 499. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



423 



27. The iota of the dative singular is but rarely elided. 
Orest, 584, 

28. When the discourse is hastily turned from one person 
to another, the noun is placed first, then the pronoun, and 
then the particle ; as, MiviXat, aol Sz tci^e Xiyu. Orest. 
614. 

29. The different governments and usages of del and xpri : 
Homer only once used BtX, and then an infinitive mood is 
subjoined. II. I. 337. He very frequently uses xpi) with 
an infinitive, and with an accusative of the person and geni- 
tive of the thing ; as also XP e ^ with the accusative aiid 
genitive. Euripides has once imitated this form : aXXa rig 
Xpzia g sfiov ; Hec. 962. The Greeks in common said St? 
gol rovSf. iEschylus seems first to have altered this, 
by using the ace. of the person, and gen. of the thing, avrov 
yap ae del HpofiijOeajg (Prom. 86.) ; and to have been fol- 
lowed by Euripides. The Attic poets never use xpw with a 
genitive : thus, orou xp?h ^ L Xiyeiv, is wrong, and should be 
altered to orou del, xpi) Xeyeiv. Orest. 659. 

30. The enclitic copulative re in the ancient Greek writers 
never follows a preposition, unless that preposition com- 
mences the member of a sentence. Thus they said, %v te 
TroXeog apxaig-) or ev iroXeog re apx^lg-, but not iroXeog iv t 
apxaie- Orest. 887. 

31. Verbs denoting motion take after them an accusative 
of the instrument or member which is chiefly used ; as, ira 
Trod' 1 lirqZag, (Hec. 1071.) where irotf is put for iroda, and 
not for irodL See above, No. 27. Orest. 1427. 

32. The tragic writers seldom prefix the article to proper 
names, except for emphasis, or at the beginning of a sen- 
tence. Phoen. 145. 

33. The tragic writers do not admit of an hiatus after ri, 



424 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

thus they did not say icayto ri ov Spwv, nor did they ask a 
question simply by biroXog : wherever the question is asked, 
biroiog must be written 6 7roToc, not biroiog. Phoen. 892. 

34. Avtoq is frequently used absolutely for p.6vog ; and 
yet avTog fiovog is not a tautologous expression. Phoen, 
1245. 

35. The article forms a crasis with a word beginning with 
alpha, only when the alpha is short ; thus, no tragic writer 
would say TaBXa for ra aOXa, because the penult, of ad\ov 
is long, the word being contracted from azOXov. Phoen. 
1277. 

36. The noun avla, or avirj, generally has its second syl- 
lable;? long, but sometimes short, as in four instances ad- 
duced by Ruhnken. The verb aviau), or aviaZt*), in the epic 
poets, generally produces the second syllable. Aristophanes 
has the second syllable of avid thrice short, and once long. 
The second syllable of aviapog is always short in Euripides 
and Aristophanes, and long in Sophocles ; but the third syl- 
lable is always long. Phoen. 1334, 

37. Kcu 7rwc? and irwg feat, have very different meanings : 
kcu irdg is used in asking a question which implies an objec- 
tion or contradiction to the preceding remark ; as, kcu it Cog 
ytvoiT av tlo v£>£ SvaTroTfjiLOTEpa ; where Creon's question is an 
implied affirmation, that the messsenger's previous remark 
was not true. But iriog kcu asks some additional informa- 
tion ; as> 7T(i)c kcu Tri-n-paKTcu ^itttv^wv iraiSwv <povog ; in 
this latter sense kcu follows the interrogatives rig, nag, 7roi, 
7rou, irolog. Sometimes between the interrogative and 
Km, & is inserted. Phoen. 1373. 

38. 'Qc is never used for zlg or irpbg, except in case of 
persons. Homer has the first instance of this Atticism. 
Od. P. 218. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 425 

'flc ai £ i *ov bfiotov ayei 0c6c we tov bfxoiov. Phoen. 1415. 

39. The copulative ical never forms a crasis with ev, ex- 
cept in words compounded with sv : it never makes a crasis 
with ad. Phoen. 1422. 

40. No iambic trimeter occurs in the tragic writers, which 
divides a spondee in the fifth foot, so that Ka\ forms the 
second part of the foot : thus, there is no line like 

Kcu yf/e (pi\r}Q 6\6ot(n Kpv(j)6io Kai tckjhik Phoen. 1464. 

41. 'AXXa jlu)v, fcal [iriv, ov$e pjv, ov ju?Ji», are frequently 
found in a sentence, with the addition of the particle yc, 
but never except where another word is interposed : thus, 
Eur. Alope. 

Ov fiiiv ov y' iijaag tovq tzkovtciq r/Stffw. Phcen. 1638. 

42. The quantity of the penult, of avr)p is no where long, 
except where it makes civipog in the genitive case : and as 
the tragic writers do not use the form avipog in iambic, 
trochaic, or anapaestic verse, the penult, of avijp is in these 
metres always short. Phcen. 16/0. 

43. Porson writes £w instead of guv, both in and out of 
composition, where the metre and smoothness of numbers 
will permit ; but in iambic metre, not so as to introduce a 
spondee where there might be an iambus. Med. 11. 

44. The tragic writers in iambic, trochaic, or legitimate 
anapaestic verse, never admit Trepl before a vowel, either in 
the same or different words. In the choral odes they rarely 
admit a verb, or substantive, of this kind of composition- 
very rarely an adjective or adverb. Med. 284. • 

45. The distinction between StSdo-Kw and Sidaanofjiai is 
this: 

The master StSatrjat (teaches) the boy : the father Stdaa- 
ketcu causes his son to be taught ; though this distinction is 
not always observed by the poets. Med. 297. 



426 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



46. A vowel at the end of a verse cannot be elided unless 
a long syllable precedes. Med. 510. 

47. Me#%u in the active voice governs an accusative ; 
in the middle, a genitive case : in the line 

"Ayovaiv ov [izOaV civ Ik yaiag epi : 

the pronoun l/xl is the accusative after the participle ayovm, 
not after pzOzto. The truth is, that, when two verbs 
governing different cases refer equally to the same noun, the 
Greeks, in order to avoid an inharmonious repetition of the 
proper name or pronoun, give it only once governed by one 
of the verbs, and omit it with the other. Med. 734. 

48. The tragic writers never use the form in vw for that 
in v{xl — (thus they do not say opvvu), but ojuvu/xi) : the 
writers of the old comedy use it very seldom — those of the 
middle, oftener — those of the new, very often. Med. 744. 

49. " 'A7 tog and ayvbg are sometimes interchanged in the 
earlier editions ; but aytog is very rarely used by the Attic 
— never by the tragic writers. Med. 750. 

50. All compound adjectives ending in og were anciently 
declined with three terminations : and after the feminine 
forms had gradually become obsolete, the poets and Attic 
writers recalled them, for the sake either of ornament or of 
variety. Med. 822. 

51. From adpu the ancients formed the future aipu), or 
aepw, by contraction, alpio, or apio, the penult, being long. 
But when they contracted aetpco itself into atjow, then they 
had a new future, apu— the penult, being short. Med. 
848. 

52. The future form pspvyjaopcu (found in Homer, II. ^. 
390.), is always used by the tragic writers — the form pvr\o- 
Ofoofiai is never used : the same remark is true of k€kAi}<70- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 427 

fiat and icXriOrioofJiai. But (3\r}Qr)(T0fiai and fizfiXfoofiai are 
met with indiscriminately. Med. 929. 

58. The nominative forms, apfiXuxp and aju/3Xw7roC} yojO- 
70^ and yopyu)7rbg, (jtXoyw^ and ^Xoywirbg, adfjirig and 
aSfj,rjTog, aZ,v% and a£vyoe, va>£i>£ and vso£uyoe, evicpag 
and wKpciTog, and such others, are both Attic. Med, 
1363. 



428 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



III. 



BlomfielcVs Canons and Remarks, from the Classical Journal, 
vol. 37, p. 275, 39. 141. 



PROMETHEUS VINCTUS. 

1. The ancient Greek poets sometimes lengthened the a 
privative, and in addvarog always. 193. 

2. ^Ev-i6i)g, not evTreidriQ, is the proper form in the tragic 
writers. It is formed from the second aorist, as svyzvrjg, 
£u<yraA?k, evXafiriQ, and many others. 341. 

3. The Athenians were accustomed to estimate the nobi- 
lity of a family by the number of horses which it kept for 
the Olympic games. 475. 

4. Kviaa, Kpiaa, Rpujatog, KOvlaaXog, not jcviorcxa, &c. is 
the proper orthography. It may be observed in general, 
that transcribers doubled the sigma, wherever it was possi- 
ble without offending against quantity; as in Ucipvaaog, 
KaaavSpa, &c. See Gloss. 53. 505. 

5. Avrog irpog avrov, not irgog avrbg civtov. 787. 

6. The Attic writers preserved the terminations of num- 
bers in composition. Thus they said, irEVTiiKovTairaig, 7tev- 
rifirivog, &c. 878. 

7. The ancients when they quoted a proverb, the author 
of which was unknown, used to say, Kara Tovg vofyovg, or 
wg \lyov<riv ol aofyoi, 913. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 429 

8. In the active voice, p&Xtiv signifies curw esse, to be 
an object of care ; in the middle voice only (.itXtaQai de- 
notes curare, to take care. Gloss. 3. 

9, %Ttpyw, wquo ammofero, to bear patiently, [or rather 
to be content with, to submit to] ; in which sense ayairau 
is also used. Sr^yw sometimes, though seldom, governs a 
dative case. Gloss. 11. 

30. JTIayoc, a hill ; from the old word nayu), pango, to 
build ; because in the first ages men were accustomed to 
build their huts on the more elevated situations ; whence, 
more anciently, irayog was the same as the Latin pagus ; 
the first syllable of which is long, being derived from the 
iEolic 7rayw, sc. ir^yw : the first of irayog is now short, 
because the more recent Greeks formed it after their usual 
manner from the 2nd aorist of iri]yvvixi. Gloss. 20. 

11. The last syllable of iripa is always long. Gloss. SO. 

12. Aiaropog, or Aiaropog, perforating or perforated, ac- 
cording as it is paroxyton, or proparoxyton ; it is used in 
both senses. Gloss. 76. 

13. Kv/cAoc, a circle, an orb, is sometimes put simply for 
the sun. Philoct. 815. Gloss. 91. 

14. Mvpta signifies iroXXa, and is a metaphor taken from 
fluids ; from fxvpw, to flow. Gloss. 94. 

15. Taybg is one who arranges ; a military word, from 
Taaaw. The first syllable is always long : but of rayrj and 
its compounds, short. Gloss. 96, 

16. "Odfxrj, the ancient Attic form for ocrfxrj. Photius and 
Thomas Magister call it Ionic ; which is also true, for the 
Ionic and ancient Attic dialect were the same. Gloss. 115. 

17. "'EkttXtigguj, to drive out, is followed by an accusative 
either of the person or the thing. Gloss. 136. 

18. XaXaw, to loosen, is properly said of ship ropes. 
Gloss. 183. 



480 THE GEECIAN DRAMA. 

19. Sropc'fe), stenio, to spread, for which the Attics said 
aropvvfu. Hence the Latin word siemo. Gloss. 198. 

20. Arjflfr, scilicet: this particle, generally joined with 
d)£ and a participle, adds somewhat of irony to the sentence 
in which it occurs. Sometimes it is found without wg, as 
Trach. 382. Gloss. 210. 

21 . Diminutives ending in vXog have something of blan- 
dishment in them, as alpvXoQ from eu/iwv ; i)dvXog from 
-rjdvg ; ^.lkkvXoq from juikkoc, or niicpug ; tptjTvXog from y ipwg ; 
6<T}tvXog, alavXog, Ata^vXog t XpefxvXog. The form seems to 
be ^Eolic, because it is preserved in Latin ; as in the dimi- 
nutives, parvulus, tremulus, globulus, and especially semulus, 
which is in fact nothing more than the Greek word cilfjivXog. 
All the words of this kind are paroxyton, and short in the 
penult. Gloss. 214. 

22. Adverbs, of whatever form, are not derived from the 
genitive, as grammarians suppose, but from the dative case 
of nouns. The greater part of those deduced from the dative 
plural end in wg (sc. oic), some from the dative singular in 
gt or t. Those which were formed from nouns ending in *j 
or a, were anciently written with ft, since they were nothing 
else than datives, so written before the invention of the letters 
r\ and it). Thus from /3o£, gen. fioig, dat. jSoet, arose avrofiotf. 
But the dative of nouns ending inoewas formerly thus formed: 
otKog, dat. oikoi, Grparbg, dat. (rrporoi ; therefore all adverbs 
derived from words of this kind anciently ended in ot ; which 
is evident from the adverbs oIkol 3 7T£§oT, 'apfiot, lv<hn, which 
still retain the old termination. Afterwards the o was 
omitted, lest the adverb should be confounded with the 
nominative plural. Thus from afxa\og is formed apaxji, not 
ajua^a, from avarog, avaTt, from aixa\r\7og t ajuax»JTt, from 
aqrivCLKTog, a(Tr£vaKTt 5 &c. The ancient form was frequently 



THE GBECIAN DRAMA. 431 

corrupted by transcribers, because they were not aware that 
the final i is sometimes long and sometimes short : short, as 
afioyriTi, Iliad A. 636. jucyaXwari, S. 26. jutXetort, £2. 409. 
aaTzvaKTi, iEschyl. ap. Athen. vii. p. 303. 0. aupi Aristoph. 
Eccles. 737. Theocrit. x. 40. xxiv. 38 : long, as avicpM-l, 
Iliad. 0. 226. ootttovSI, O. 476, avaijuwr'i, P. 363. avovry\r1, 
X. 371. /aeraTToi^ ¥. 358. lytcvrl, Archiloclms, Etym. M. 
p. 311. 40. (yet the last syllable of the same word is made 
short by Callimachus. Suid. v. lv\oio,) aorafcrT, CE. 0. 1646, 
aKpovv)(7, Meleager Brunck, Anal. i. p. 10. atcXaurT, Callim. 
fr. ccccxviii. Gentile adverbs ending in ™, as Awptori, 
^pvyiarl, &c. have the last syllable always short. Gloss. 216. 
[There is however a class of adverbs ending iu wg, as Sto- 
<pepovT(i)g, 7ravTU)Q, ovrwc, aa-$aXwc, a\r)6wg, &c. which are 
more probably formed from the genitive than the dat. plural. 
See Dunbar's Article in the Class. Journ. vol. xiii. p. 75.] 

23. Adjectives ending in vg, when compounded with 
another word, change the vg into rig, as jueXaju/3a0r)e, Trrepv- 
ywKrjg, KvvoOaparjg, &c. Gloss. 227. 

24. 'AvTafxdfiofxai, to requite, takes either a dative or a 
genitive case. Gloss. 231. 

- 25. NtjXcwc is formed from avvXewg by aphseresis 5 not 
from the privative particle vi), which is not a Greek word. 
So there is vr\ang and avtitrng ; vfiyperog and avrjyperog ; 
vrjvfjuoe and avi'ivzfxog; vriKOvarlb) and av^fcoixm'w ; vt\k^gtov 
and av/jjceoTov. NrjXty^c is used for ava\tyrig> vqTrtvOrjg for 
avairzvQrig, vrifjitpTrig for avafizprijg, (Hesych.) by eliding a, 
and changing a into r\ lonice. ''AvaXnrog occurs Theocr. vi. 
36. for which there is vr}\nrog, Apoll. Eh. iii. 646. Gloss. 
248. 

26. OaKog is the form used by the Attic poets : Omkoq 
seems to be Ionic. Gloss. 288, 



432 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

27. M&to, in composition signifies change or alteration. 
Gloss. SI 7. 

28. 7jY)X(o <7£, invidendum te puto ; I think you enviable. 
This is a form of speaking which congratulates with some 
admiration. MaKapiZio is frequently, 6Xj3t'£w but seldom, 
used in this sense. See Valcken. Theocr. Adoniaz. p. 415. 
Gloss. 338. 

29. Uapa in composition very frequently conveys the idea 
of weakness or uselessness ; as iraprjopog and 7raparovoe, 
Alcest. 400. Gloss. 371. 

30. "AVc, orcus, the same as AtSrjc, but with the soft 
breathing ; the Attics said li'ig, but Ai'3i]c, olarbg, alaau), &c. 
Gloss. 442. 

31. <Pvpw, commisceo, to mingle ; the more recent form is 
ifivpau, which occurs Theb. 48. Gloss. 459. 

32. f/ T7rap, verum somnium, a true dream ; Horn. Od. T. 
547. Ok ovcip, uXX vTrap taOXbv^ o Kai TtTtXeapivov corral. 
Gloss. 495. 

33. The first syllable of \nrapeto is long, because it is 
formed from Xnraprig. Gloss. 529. 

34. 'Attuoj, pronuncio, to utter, has the penult common. 
It is short, P. V. 613. Theb. 143. Pers. 123. Equit. 1023. 
It is long, Hec. 156. and Eur. Suppl. 800. Gloss. 613. 

35. Words compounded with tt\{\<jgw, as olarpoTtXriZ, are 
all oxyton, except iWArj?. Gloss. 702. 

36. XpifiTTTio, propinquo, to approach. The most ancient 
mode of writing this word was XptVrw : in which ju was 
afterwards inserted for the sake of euphony. Gloss. 738. 

37. SuXaw, spolio, to plunder, requires an accusative of 
the person, and an accusative or genitive (but more fre- 
quently an accusative) of the thing. Gloss. 786. 

38. Xapiv OiaOai, TiOzaOai, and even Oeivat, signifies to 
confer a favor. Gloss, 807. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 433 

39. *A7ru/>oc, ardent issimus. In some words a is intensive, 
and is said by grammarians htvratnv §r\Xovv : so aSaKpvrog 
for TToXvdaKpvTog, in Soph. Trachin. 106. Antig. §81. 
a%v\y i)Xrj, Homer, II. A. 135. anvpog, in the sense of sine 
igne, is used, Agam. 71. Gloss. 905. 

PERS.E. 

1. The tragic writers made the first syllable of 'laog short ; 
but in IfToQeog they necessarily lengthened the iota, in order 
that the word might be adapted to verse,, The same thing 
took place in aOavarog, aKafiarog, cnrapafivdog. They said 
6erj(j)6pog, a<7mdr)(j>6pog, EAa<£rj/36Aoc, and the like : rather 
than 0eo<p6pog, cKrmSocfropog, sXcKpofioXog, for the same 
reason, viz. that the concurrence of four or more short syl- 
lables might be avoided. (81.) 

2. Kuavcov, according to Burney, is a trisyllable : but 
since Kvavov is the name of a metal, tcvaveov is more cor- 
rectly written Kvavovv. Phrynichus, Xprj ovv \iyuv xpv<ra 9 
apyvpa, Kuava, tqv ' AttikiZovto.. — Xpvaovg \£yf to yap 
Xpvatog 'UtKOV, waavriog kol apyvpovg, xaXicovg, Kvavovg, 
kol ofiota. The first syllable of Kvavzog is always long in 
Homer; as also in Soph. Antig. 966. Eurip. Androm. 856. 
1003, Tro. 1094. (83.) 

3. An inhabitant of Syria was called Ivpog ; an inhabi- 
tant of the island of Syros (one of the Cyclades), *2vptog, 
(86). 

4. It is uncertain whether the tragic writers used the 
present imperative of yiyvoftai. (176.) 

5. As often as iroXvg is joined with an epithet, the par- 
ticle kol intervenes, though it adds nothing to the sense. 
This remark is true of all the ancient Greek writers. (249.) 

f p 



434 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

6. The more ancient Attic forms were K&XiVGfict, yvwrrrbg, 
K\av(TTog, r)/udiC(w<JTOQ, Kara^ixr/xara, kpovapa ; in the more 
modern, the sigma was dropped. (403.) 

7. A(\pa, rig, is the more ancient, Styoe, toe, the more 
modern form. (490.) 

8. The first syllable of atcj is shorty Pers. 639. Agam. 55. 
CE. C. 1767. Hec. 178. ; and hng, Eumen. 841. (E. C. 
304. Hec. 174. Vesp. 516. (639.) 

9. The imperfect of airoXXvfu is but seldom used by the 
tragic writers : Soph. Electr. 1360. aXX' Ipt Aoyotg cnruX- 
\vg. (E. It. 1454>iv 1 £$ tKeivwv, oi fi airujXXvTr}Vy 6avto» 
(658.) 

10. From (j>a(*> is formed 7rt^ao-Kw, as from Saw, &$ao-ica>, 
from /3aw, )3ij3a<TKw, which should be replaced in Homer 
for the anomalous word j3tj3acT0w. But the iEolic form 
iri<jiav<JK<i) is more frequently found in Homer. (668.) 

11. 'Ifluvw, not ivOvvw, is the more ancient Homeric 
and poetic word; for the Attics used evOvvw, tv&vvog, 
svdvvrjy &c, only in political affairs : that Wvg was the 
ancient Attic word is proved by the compounds IQvTzvrjg, 

WixJHxWog, Wayevrig. (779.) 

12. The Greeks said ^aXafxivi^g and ^aXaiuvtadeg, not 
^aXafxivXdeg ; as "also Xu/ntovidsg and XsifxwvtaSeg ; Kprivideg 
and Kpriviadsg. (965.) 

13. 'A^vtoe, opulenttts, wealthy : the more common form 
is a(j>vetog. Gloss. 3. 

14. IleSoGTifirjg, terra incedens, walking on the ground. 
This word frequently occurs in Euripides. Compounds in. 
oTifirig sometimes have a passive signification ; as 'riXioari- 
fifc P- V. 816, o<m/3fo, Theb. 857. Gloss. 132. 

15. 'Ev vfiiv, penes te sunt, depend on you. The same 
meaning obtains, (E, It, 314. J Ev aoi yap lafxiv. See also 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 435 

Aj. Fl. 519. Phoeniss. 1265. Iph. A. 137.9. Helen. U41. 
Gloss. 177. 

16. kliraSvov, averta ; Anglice, a poitrel or breast-band, 
which performed the office of the collar with us. The word 
is formed from XeiraZoj, decortico, to strip off the bark. 
Photius makes Xinadvov and jj.a<jxa\ioTi)f> the same. Gloss. 
166. 

17. 20aSa£w, factor, to struggle ; properly said of those 
who are in the agonies of death. Gloss. 199. 

18. <£auAoe and (pXavpog are used in the same sense ; but 
<J>avXog is more frequently applied to persons, and (pXavpog 
to things. Their derivations are different. That is pro- 
perly called fyXavpov which is light, and of no weight. 
From its parent word <j)X&o, are derived <j)Xe\p, <pXzog, <pXz- 
Swv, (bXau), <p\(y(jj, <pXvati, (pXoiog, (frXoiafiog, <pXvw, (pXva- 
pog, (fXavpog ; all of which have a notion of lightness and 
emptiness. Gloss. 222. 

19. 'AjuLav is, to scrape with the hand, sc. the sand, and 
to make level, from ajj,a : hence ctfjiavpbv is, whatever is 
levelled with the ground. Of the same family are ajiaQog, 
arena, the sand ; and ap.a6vvco, to erase, as letters written 
on the sand : likewise afiaXov, plane, and afiaXdyvu), to ren- 
der plane ; and all of them perhaps ought to be aspirated. 
Gloss. 288. 

20. The ancients only used the plural form cW,uai, occasus, 
the setting, sc. of the sun, or the West. On the contrary, 
dvaig was always put in the singular. Gloss. 237. 

21. The particle Z>a is nothing else but the iEolic form of 
Sea, which has an intensive force, like per in Latin. Thus 
Alc^eus said Za$r)Xov for diadi]Xov : Sappho, ^atXe'ted/uav 
for oteAcSa/XTjv. Therefore we find %d9eog, Z>aixzvr\g, %a7r6~ 
trig, ^a^e-yy^e, ^>d\pvaog, £axp*joe. Gloss. 321. 



48 G THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

22. "Ewe, in the sense of donee, until, requires the aorist 
[indicative]. Sometimes, but seldom, it is followed by the 
aorist optative. But when it signifies dum, quamdiu, 
whilst, as long as, it requires the present or imperfect. 
Gloss. 432. 

23. NojU(^£«v signifies to believe in the existence of. He 
who believed in the gods was said absolutely Otovg vofxiZziv 
or fiyiiaOai. Gloss. 504, 

24. UifjLTTpr^fii, incendo, to burn. Perhaps the first p. was 
inserted by the later Greeks ; and the ancients wrote mirp^pL 
and 7riir\rif.u, according to the usual form of verbs in pi. 
'JEjU7n7r/>r)/.u occurs in Aristot. Hist. Anim. v. 1. as also 
frequently in Herodotus,— ipiriir\ri[u, Homer, II. <£. 311. 
Nor is the quantity of the syllable any objection. See Er- 
furdt, Soph. GE. ft. p. 414. Gloss. 815. 

25. In the tragic writers the plural of iTrmpiov is used, 
not the singular. Gloss. 828. 

26. From the ancient word ttvvio, the first syllable of 
which is long (and its perf. pass, frequently occurs in 
Homer), is formed wivvokw, in the same way that jiviogkcj 
is formed from yvww. Gloss. 835. 

27. ' kvkyppai, sustineo, to bear or endure, is joined with 
a participle. See Dr. Monk's Hipp. 354. Gloss. 843. 

SEPTEM CONTRA THEBAS. 

1. 'E7ti, in the sense of contra, is sometimes used with a 
dative case by iEschylus. See Sept. Theb. 711. Agam. 
60. P. V. 1124. though with the genitive more generally. 
V. 1. 

2. The article is frequently used for the relative : rove 
for ovg Pers. 43. Tovirtp for ovirep ibid. 780. roOev for 86sv 
ibid. 780. r^v for i]v Agam. 644. &c. V. 37. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 437 

3. The tragic writers used the Doric forms, Kwaydg, 
Kvvayiio, tcvvayirrig, Aoxcn/Errje, EJ5dofiayirr]g. V. 42. 

4. Brunck and Schutz prefer as more Attic ttXzvuuv in- 
stead of 7rv£vfMi)v, but the latter is the more recent Attic 
form. The grammarians indeed side with Brunck, but then 
it is well known that they derived their rules for the most 
part from iElian, Libanius, Aristides, and other sophists, 
sometimes from Lucian, more rarely from the historians or 
Plato, and very seldom indeed from the scenic poets. V. 61. 

5. The Ionic vt)bg for vabg was not used in the iambic 
senary. V. 62. 

6. Eu^ojucu is frequently omitted before an infinitive 
mood. See Sept. Theb. 239. Choeph. 304. Eurip. Suppl. 
3. V. 75. 

7. Tioj has the first syllable common in Homer, but short 
in iEschylus and Aristophanes. The first syllable of riacj 
is always long. V. 77. 

8. The first syllable of "Apyg is sometimes long, as in w. 
125. 336. 465. 

9. Adjectives compounded of nouns in oc generally retain 
the termination og ; thus words compounded of \6yog, rpo- 
Xog, &c. in the tragic writers never end in ag ; that termi- 
nation being more modern and less agreeable to analogy. 
V. 109. 

10. Some adjectives have the three terminations, nog, 
tog, iKog, as tinrsiog, 'iirmog, 'nnriKog ; BovXziog, SovXtog, 
SovXiKbg, &c. The first of these three forms is used only 
on account of the metre. V. 116. 

11. The last syllable of norna is always short. V. 141. 

12. The probable orthography of \voa is Kvoa. From 
Kviuj is derived Kvovg and kvoci, as from piw, povg and poa ; 
from xeu), x°*'C anc ^ X° a * V. -^^. 



438 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

13. M?) sometimes forms a crasis with a and tig* V. ,1.93. 

14. The tragic- writers never join $1 and te. V. 212. 

15. The words Su roi are never construed except with 
the indicative. V. 220. 

16. OvTL no where begins a sentence, unless /my), 7rou, or 
irwg follows, or when there is an interrogation, and then a 
word is always interposed between them. The formula 
«XX' ovtl is frequent at the head of a sentence. V. 222. 

17. Nvv is always an enclitic when it is subjoined to the 
particle. ju#. % 228. 

18. 'ATroAfcyw is a word unheard of by the tragic writers. 
V./259. . 

19. The Attics wrote Sri'iog and Syog, not Saiog and Saoc, 
as is clear from the compounds drfiaXcjTog, ■ aByog, and the 
verb Srjow. Aaiog, however, is the proper orthography, 
when it signifies aOXiog. V. 264. 

20. . Nerie is a monosyllable. V. 316. 

21. f 0c ? in the sense of adeo Ufa is only found with the 
infinitive. V. 361. 

22. x Y7r£pKC7rog, not vTripKop-irog^ is the form used by the 
tragic writers ; for there is no passage in them where the 
metre requires the latter form ; some where it rejects it. 
A later age, as it seems, inserted the p.. V. 387. 

23. "A vota, and similar compounds, very rarely produce 
the last syllable ; in ^Eschylus never. V. 398. 

24. *A fjti) Kpavot Oeog. In prayers of this kind the aorist 
is more usual than the present. V. 422. 

25. 'lug in the tragic writers has the first syllable com- 
mon, but oftener short. V. 489. 

26. Tw is never put for rovrw with a substantive. V. 505. 

27. EWe yap is scarcely Greek Utinam is expressed 
% d or a yap, never by u&e yap. V. 563. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 439 

28. Uo\£]uiftpx o Zi no ^ ndXsnapxag. That the Attics ter- 
minated compounds of this kind by ^oe may be inferred 
from the circumstance that their proper names were "lirirap- 
Xog, ISiiapx^g, KXiap\og. V. 828. 

29. In the Attic poets probably pi\toi in the vocative is 
always a dissyllable. V. 945. 

30. Uoayog is a more tragic word than irpayp,a. Gl. 2. 

31. "Words compounded of poOog were favorites with 
^Eschylus, as TroXvppoOog, raxvppodog, IrrippoOog, aXt/o- 
podog, iraXippoOog, &c. Gl. 7. 

32. From oipoi is derived olpwZu), as from juu, juu^gj ; 
from o>, oj^d) ; [from at at, ata£co '•> from ot ot, oi£gj ; from 
IXeXeu, eXcXt^b) ; from ototoT, ototvZu) ; from av, auw and 
aiirgoj ; from <£eu, <£su£a> ; from cvoc, £iia?w]. Otjuwy?) is 
more frequently used than oip.toyp.a. Gl. 8. 

33. When 'EXXeiVw signifies dejicio, abmm, it requires a 
genitive ; when it signifies omitto, it is followed by an accu- 
sative. Gl. 1 0. 

34. Ylvpywf-ia is a fortification, or a collection of nvpyoi : 
just as ^curto/ia and rpixtofia are a collection of x aLTaL an( i 
Tpix^Q' Gl. 30. 

35. navwXeflpoc has both an active and a passive signifi- 
cation. Gl. 71. 

36. The tragic writers use both \abg and its Attic form 
\e&g. Gl. 80. 

37. WjLiaxtroQ is used but rarely for afia\0Q and ajuiaxn- 
Tog. Gl. 85. 

38. Avkhoc, an epithet of Apollo, is derived from Xvki), 
dxluculum^ whence the Latin lux, Gl. 134: 

39. From the obsolete verb X?'/kw are derived the perfect 
\z\aKa and the second aor. cXczkov. Gl. 141. 

40. BpiOoj sometimes, though rarely, has an active signi- 



440 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

fication, i; to load.' 1 It is more generally used intransitively, 
■" to be heavy." GL 141. 

41 . The tragic writers frequently used nouns in ac, as 
Xidag, a heap or shower of stones ; vi<pag, a shower of snow ; 
tjivWag, a heap of leaves, &c. Gl. 146. 

42. Srcyw, sustineo, non admitto ; is properly said of a 
ship which is ivater-tight. Gl. 202. 

43. "EicrjXog is formed from the obsolete verb eW, volo : 
as from oryaw or oryw, aiyr{X6g ; from ala^vvu), attr^ui'rrj- 
Xog ; from ityt, vipr}X6g ; from j3fj3aw, fitfiriXog. Gl. 
224. 

44. Satveiv is said of a dog* who wags his tail and fawns : 
thence, to flatter. Gl. 379. 

45. The penult, of aXva) is short in Homer, and long in 
other Greek poets. In the Odyssey, I. 398. aXvuv has the 
penult long, which would lead to the supposition that the 
passage where it occurs was not Homer's, though it is 
quoted by an old grammarian in Eustath. II. Z. p. 654, 55* 
Gl. 387. 

46. The Greeks used OavaTrifyopog, XafAiraSrityopog, \Qovi- 
i]<f>6poQ, and the like, instead of 9avaTo<p6pog, &c. to avoid 
the concurrence of four short syllables. Gl. 415. 

47. *H fxriv, certe^ is a formula of confirmation, used in 
case of an oath. Gl. 527. 

48. Words ending in r\arrig are very rare. Gl. 641. 

49. Sruyoc, odium, is frequently used by iEschylus, but 
very seldom by others. Gl. 650. 

50. Tpih) is a Doric word, very seldom used by the tragic 
writers except in the aorist. Gl. 790. 

51. Words compounded of Komg were favorites with 
^schylus. Gl. 804. 

52. 'OXoXvynbg is & female cry or shriek, Gl. 825. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



441 



53. 'AXaXa^oj strictly means, to raise the shout of tri- 
umph ; sometimes simply ejulo. Gl. 951, 

54. 'AceA^'oc no where occurs in the tragic writers ex- 
cept in the choral odes. Add. 537. 



AGAMEMNON. 



1. KXoi w,- Kciuo. <fcc. were the more ancient Attic forms ; 
for which, subsequent to the time of iEschylus, reAaftJ, kciw, 
&c, were used. V. 17, 

2. 'EciXwkci and rjAwKa are both found in the best Greek 
writers ; the former is more ancient ; the latter, more 
modern Attic. V. 29. 

3. It is doubtful whether ^joT/^a, or xpiapa, is the better 
form. From Xi°' w (the first syllable being always long) was 
deduced ypiardg^ as from xpaoixai 3 xjotjotoc- But the sub- 
stantive was Xpr\pia ; so from xp' l(i) > XP l L ia '■> fr° m koviw, 
Kov'ijua ; from fiY\viw, fxrivlfia. V. 93. 

4. Adjectives compounded of the dative Sojoi, or Sovp), 
retained the iota in composition, as SojOtKTrjroc, dovpiaXcorog, 
Sop/ArjTrroCj ^ovpnnrrig, SoptiLiavrjg, SopiOi'iparog, dopfjiap- 
yog. But those which are formed from the accusative 
retain the v, as $oov(p6pog, Sopvuaovg, Sopu^ooc, SoovKpa- 
vog. V. 115. 

5. Diminutives of animals terminate in idtvg. V. 117. 

6. Toiovtov and tooovtov are the Attic forms of the neu- 
ter gender ; tolovto and togovto the Ionic ^ . 306. 

7. The Attics said Sicikovuv rather than SiijKovtTv. V. 
310. 

8. Ev aifitiv Ocoiig, and tvmfitiv ug Ozcvg differ : the 
former signifies, duly to worship the gods ; the latter, to 
conduct oneself piously towards the gods : the latter cannot 



442 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

have an accusative after it except with a preposition. V, 
329. 

9. The Attics used aXfoicojuat in the present, and adopted 
the other tenses from aXow, whence also avaXow. Where- 
fore the optative should be written aX?»'rjv, as j3ii^i>, Sqnv. 
and the like. V. SSI. 

TO. w O?rwc av does not precede the optative, except in the 
sense of quo maxime modo. -When'o7rwe signifies ut, it re- 
quires the subjunctive with, or the optative without av. V. 
357. ' 

11. "Hroi is not used by the tragic writers for sane^ un- 
less followed by apa or av. V. 462. 

12. In solemn appeals, such as Horn. II. E. 116. 

Ei 7TOT£ juoi KaX 7rarpt (pi\a (ppoviovaa rrapiaTr\q 
Ar}ioj Iv TToXifji^, vvv avr lp.1 <pi\ai, ^AQrivr). 

Ei 7tote is more frequently used than a irov. V. 503. 

13. Aporroi Ka.T£\l>£Ka.Zov, e/unredov (tlvoq 
'Err^ijjuarwv, rSivng EvOrjpbv Tpi\a. 

Here the young scholar will remark that the masculine par- 
ticiple tl6£vt£q agrees with the feminine noun Spocroi ; of 
which anomaly perhaps no other instance can be found in 
the Attic poets, except in the case of animals. V. 544. 

14. II wc av with the optative frequently signifies utinam 
in Euripides, much more rarely in the other tragic writers, 
perhaps never in iEschylus. V. 605. 

15. Tap is frequently used in interrogative sentences 
[and may be translated by, what ?]. V. 613. 

16. Ami, a7rai, and v7rat, occur in the Greek poets for 
the more common forms Sia, curb, and virb. V. 865. 

17. Qvpcuog is said of a person even in the feminine gen- 
der :". Qypaia of a thing in the same gender. V. 1022. 






THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 443 

18. The penult, of 7rXrj0i;w is short ; of ttXhQvvi^ long. 
V. 134.1. 

19. The primary meaning of o<Vrj was probably Mfteness, 
multitude: whence SwojXoi/, an image; and ouojv, for Kara 
Stktjv, instar, like. Gl. 3. 

20. Bovg £7rt y\(L(?<jy is a well-known proverb, and said 
of those who being bribed do not mention those things they 
ought to disclose, and then applied to others who through 
fear or dread of punishment dare not speak out freely. The 
origin of the proverb may probably have been derived from 
the custom among the ancients of holding in their mouth 
the coins which they received from the sale of their wares. 
A similar phrase occurs, (E. 0. 1051. "Xjpvaia k\uq IttX 
ykwaaq j3t/3aKfv. Gl. 35. 

21. According as friendship, hospitality, an oath, [sup- 
plication,] companionship, or purification, was referred to, 
Jupiter was invoked by the title of <j>i\iog, Ziviog or t<p£<j- 

TLOQ 7 opKlOC [tKEdtOC,] hrCllpUOQ, 01' KClOapCFlOQ. Gl. 60. 

22. Such expressions as iari 3' ami vvv £<rn, are used 
where a speaker alludes to an unpleasant subject, and thus 
briefly dismisses it. Gl. 66. 

23. It was the custom of the poets, when they made use 
of a trope somewhat too bold, immediately to subjoin the 
epithet in order to limit and define its meaning. In the 
P. V. 828. jEschylus calls VpvTraq, Z^vog Kvvag ; but he 
corrects the metaphor in some degree by adding aicpayug, 
" dogs indeed, but not barking dogs." Sept. Theb. 64. he 
calls an army KVfjia, but adds xtpamov. Ibid. 82, dust is 
called a messenger, but avavSog. Ibid. 856. he calls 
Charon^s boat Oziop&a ; but immediately adds tcw aarifiri 
VoXXwvt to distinguish it from the true dzwpig. Gl. 81. 

24. The origin of in, suoi, and similar exclamations, is 



444 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

not to be sought in the Greek language, but in that of the 
nation, to which Greece owes its mythology, sc. the Egyp- 
tian. Gl. 144. 

25. JTlejOrt is the dative of the obsolete iripa, wBpag, irtpa, 
7ripav ; and hence the reason why the last syllable is long. 
Gl. 183. 

26. 'AvSptov, yvvaiK&iiov, [7rap6evwv : ] &c. were elliptic 
expressions originally for avSpwv, yvvaucwv, [TrapQivtov] 
(OaXapog) whence the genitive came into use for the nomi- 
native. Gl. 235. 

27. The participle of the perfect passive is frequently 
used actively, as imrvapivog, ytciopivoG, It.ripTraapivog^ tte~ 
(ppaypivog, ZKKZKopiapzvog, avaKeuopiapivog, airodsdety pzvog. 
&c. Gl. 252, 

28. "Aokttov was the first meal which the ancients took in 
the morning, and generally about the third hour. Phile- 
mon, however, asserts that the meals were uKpariapa, apia- 
tov, iaifipuFfjut, and Suirvov. Gl. 322. 

29. Aoyyjtpog, ad hastam pertinms. Similar forms are 
£\BifiOQ, TroivijULOQ, Soki/uioq, iropwipog, Tp6(j)i pog, apiraytpog, 
Kapiripog, povipog, irapapovipog, ovvay&yipog, aXtcipog, KaX- 
Xipog, Kv^tpog, HxpiXipog, ao&ipog. Verbal adjectives in 
ipog are of a different class, as aXwcnpog, and have a cer- 
tain middle signification between the active and passive. 
Gl. 395. arid Gl. 9. 

30. 'Pfyt^a, celeriter, is derived from plfnrTw, the Ionic 
form of piTTTO) ; whence pipfyaXzog and pijurpapparog. With 
the same variety, the Ionians, i. e. the Hellenes, said \plp: 
tttu) for xpnrrtu, and Xap^opai for Xityojuai. Gl. 897. 

31. In compounds from opog, the Ionic form ovpog is re- 
tained in tivvovpog, awovpog, irpoaovpog, Tt]Xovpdg, which is 
not the case in opopog. Gl. 478. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 445 

32. ^Avatvo/uat, to deny, is joined with a participle of the 
person speaking. Gl. 566. 

33. Adjectives masculine are sometimes found with femi- 
nine substantives, as Tu^if owr-rip, x^P 7rpa/crwp, irtiOcj 0fAic- 
Ttop. Gl. 647. 

34. TiveOXov is a word only used by the poets. Gl. 757. 

. 35. It is doubtful whether the form x a ' iVM m the present 
is found in the more ancient Greek writers. Gl. 893. 

36. " Solebant veteres ante cibum vtyaaQai manus, et 
post cibum airovi^aaOai, teste Polluce, quern Stanleius advo- 
cavit." Gl. 1004. 

37. 20 ay £?o v, the vessel which received the blood of vic- 
tims. [Victima tamen, Troad. 742.] Gl. 1060. 

38. KeAo/ieu, though frequent in Homer, seldom occurs 
in the tragic writers. Gl. 1088. 

39. ^EiroTTTtvw, inspecto, is a word frequently used by 
JEschylus, but not by the other tragic writers. Its proper 
signification, at least in Attic Greek, is to behold the mys- 
teries. Gl. 1241. 

40. Evfiapi)g, facilis, is formed from an old word paprf, 
a hand ; as from x*ipi ^X £ P^- ^- 1297. 

41. Ylaacropai, vescor, in which sense it is used only in the 
aorist and joined with an accusative or genitive. The sim- 
ple form was 7rao>, whence ttcit£io, and pasco : iraaaadai, 
vesci, has the first syllable short ; naGaaOai, possidere, has 
the first syllable long. Gl. 1380. 

42. "Ewe, when it signifies quamdiu, and is joined to the 
perfect, or when with the present it signifies dum, does not 
take the particle av : as often as it means donee, it requires 
av and the subjunctive mood, or the optative without av. 
Gl. 1410. 

43. The plural number [when used for the singular] in- 



446 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

creases the force of the sentence, whether it be sarcasm or 
panegyric. Gl. 1414. 

44. There is frequent mention of stoning in the ancient 
writers ; which species of punishment was employed by the 
people when excited by sudden indignation, because stones 
always lay at hand. Gl. 1606. 

45. Moyew is an Homeric word, less frequently used by 
the tragic writers, with whom the more common word is 
lxo\di(x). The primitive root was juo&> (whence moveo, by an 
increase in the number of syllables, and the insertion of the 
digamma). Hence fioepog, fiwpbg, mobilis, (whence lofjuo- 
pog, lyxt<jip.iopog), fioyig, jioyog, f.i6\6og, &c. Gl. 1614. 

46. Words ending in trrjg may be called locals ; as du)fxa- 
TiTtig, ^lopirrjg, idphrig, l(T7Tfpirr]c, &c» Gl. 1640. 941. 47. 

CHOEPHORCE. 

1. It may be doubted whether the future of avaaato 
occurs at all in the Attic poets. V. 125. 

2. "Oirwg p), with the future indicative and with the 
aorist subjunctive, is correct, and therefore there can be no 
reason why both forms should not be used in the same sen- 
tence. V. 260. 

3. The first syllable of §cu£w is common in iEschylus, 
after the example of Homer. V. 890. 

4. The particles kol dij are perhaps never joined with the 
optative. V. 557. 

5. The Greeks said, not iroWa Suva, but noWa kcu Suva. 
V. 578. 

6. If Tig av ayKaXtaaLTo ; (Agam. 989.) tic av ravra 
viBoiro ; (Theb. 1068.) rig av tv^airo ; (Agam. 1312.) &c. 
be right, rig \iyoi ; cannot be correct. V. 586* 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



447 



7. A short vowel before a mute with a liquid may be 
made long in the choral metres. V. 597. 

8. RiKaaa is the more ancient, yuana the more modern 
Attic. V. 623. 

9. Etiv* aKovio. The lengthening of a short syllable in 
this place cannot be defended, unless perhaps it was the 
usual form of the porter's answer ; ehv' cikovw. V. 645. 

10. When any one to a question irCog so answers as to 
doubt of the question, the reply is made by oirwg. The 
same rule applies t&rig, 7roT, and the like. V. 755. 

11. The particles aXX' rj are used at the head of inter- 
rogative sentences. V. 762. 

12. The tragic writers always used irvXri in the plural. 

13. <Pi\tcit AlyiaOov |3ta. This is the only instance of 
the circumlocution, (5(a Tivog, joined with an adjective mas- 
culine. [Most probably a comma should be placed after 
<Pi\tclt\ and then there will be no necessity to have recourse 
to the axVfJLVL noog to cFr}jjiaiv6f.uvov. V". 880. 

14. Ov fxrj with the future indicative forbids, with the 
aorist subjunctive denies. V. 882. 

15. The Greeks did not use avrbv for tfiavrov, though 
they said avTovg for fifiag avTovg. V. 1001. 

16. KaTipxoiMu signifies to return, as an exile, into his 
country. Gl. 3. 

17. The Greeks, when they attained to the age of pu- 
berty, used to cut off their hair, and consecrate it to Apollo 
Kouporpo^oc, and to rivers. Theseus commenced the cus- 
tom, for he consecrated to Delian Apollo the hair which he 
cut from the fore part of his head. Gel. 6. 

18. Tig is sometimes used for nag Tig, unusquisque. GL 5o. 

19. <£a<7Kw, dictito, differs from ^ijjut, as (3cktk<jj from j3f/^(, 
didpa<TK<*> from dpyfAi, yiyvoxiKU) from yvwju* ; [x«ctkw from 



448 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

Xau,] and the like. The termination (new denotes repeti- 
tion of the action. Gl. 87. 

20. To£a in the plural almost always is put for a single 
bow in the tragic writers. Gl. 155. 

21. 'Efca sometimes signifies, apud inferos. GL 353. 

22. -ZEschylus was partial to words compounded of Kapvto, 
as dopiK^g, av^poKpi)g. &C, GL 359. 

23. Feminine nouns ending in rpia are derived from mas- 
culines in 7jc, as 7ro\£iJ.l(7Tpia from TroXe/nKTTrjg, ayvprpia 
from ayvprrig, (fraiSpvvrpia from (paidpvvTiig. Gl. 418. 

24. Xaiptiv is construed with a participle of the verb ex- 
pressive of the action with which one is delighted. Gl. 442. 

25. Ovdap) uber, peculiar to the other animals ; fxacrrbg 
was applied to women. GL 526. 

26. "Ow^a denotes any kind of instruments. Gl. 537. 

27. IlocWoc, cujas, is formed from the ancient pronoun 
nog, and the substantive Sa~og, the ground. GL 567. 

28. Ulopai is the ancient future for Trtcrofxai from tt'kjj. 
Aristophanes has ttUtm, the first syllable being long, Eq. 
1286. 1398.. The more recent form is Triovfiai. Theocri- 
tus, vii. 69. has the first syllable of TriofxaL short. GL 
570. 

29. K/w, vado, is an Homeric word, not used by Sopho- 
cles or Euripides ; and from it is derived kivbm. Gl. 668. 

30. "'QmaQotrog, pedissequa, for omaOoTTovg, as asWoirog, 
OiSnroe, 7rouXu7roc, for atWoirovg, Oldlirovg, TroXvwovg. GL 

701. 

31. The Attics said with the Dorics Siiprjv and irsivyv for 
§t\pav and ttuvclv : but this did not extend to the third per- 
son singular of the present indicative [probably because 
there would have been a confusion between the indicative 
and subjunctive moods]. GL 744. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 449 

32. "Avw, perfi-cio, has the penult long in the present, 
and short in the second aorist. Gl. 786. 

S3. Avocfrepog, tenehricosus. Except Svofyog, Svo7raXi£w, 
and 8vb\p, no Greek word begins with 8v. Gl. 797. 

34. Eustathius, II. A. 467. 44. derives cXeyx ? fr° m ^^ lv 
%y\og, because most subjects of dispute were decided 
by arms. This etymology is much more probable than 
another given in the same place, curb tov cXotv $y\og. For 
tktyxpg, the grasping of the spear to decide a dispute, was 
the same as the proof by battle with the Teutonic nations, 
and hence it signified any proof; and, by an easy transition, 
it denoted argument, reproof, insult. Gl. 838. 

35. Of words ending in arsprig, some have a passive sig- 
nification, as TraTpOGTeprjg, bfifxaTOGTzpr\g, fiioareprig, ijXtCNX- 
Ttpi]Q ; and some an active, as apyvpovTtprjg, dfi/jLaTOGTsprig, 
(Eum. 933.) ftioareptg (CEd. C. 314.) Gl. 989. and 247. 

36. Names of winds ending in lag are formed from other 
names, GL 1054. 



G G 



450 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



IV. 

Canons and Remarks 

In th$ Higpolytus and Alcestis of Professor Monl\ 

from the ClassicalJoumal, wl. 37, p. 124. 

1. KlicX?}juai is frequently used by the tragic [and other] 
writers in the sense of elfiL Hipp. 2. 

2. npecrfovio sometimes signifies irpoTifiaw, to honor or 
respect. So Ghoeph. 486. rovde 7rp£<rj3£vorw ra^ov. Hipp. 5. 

3. Oijfflwe ?ra7e, 'AfiaZovog roKog : this pleonasm, where 
in prose we should have said Oijorewe koI 'A/iaSovoe iratg or 
tokoc, is not uncommon. See Dr. Blomfield's note P. V. 
140. Hipp. 10. 

4. ricu'&i/jua, as also Aox^/xa? juicnj/ia, and other words 
of the same class, are used for persons. Moreover, the 
plural form Traidevfiara denotes only one individual, sc. Hip- 
polytus, as in Soph. Philoct. 86. rexvij/xara, one cup, Hec. 
269. 7rpo<r0ayjuara, one victim. Hipp. 11. 

5. UaXaL wpoKoxpaG, ov ttovov ttoXXov /is Set. YlpOKO^pad 
is here a nominatwus pendens ; of which solcecism, or 
archaism, instances occur in iEsch. Suppl. 455. Choep. 518. 
P. V. 209. GE. C. 1120. Phcen. 290. See Kuster. Aristoph. 
Plut. 277. and Gregor. Corinth, p. S3. Hipp. 23. 

6. rijOOK07JTa> signifies to advance ; and is taken metapho- 
rically from those who cut down wood and other obstacles 
in a road. Hipp. 23. 

7. The future of divea) is alvri&oj in Homer, and cuveW 
in the tragic writers. Hipp. 37. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 451 

8. "Aprepiv rifiujv Beav] Not Osbv, as Aldus edited and 
Valckenaer preferred : 17 Ozbg occurs frequently in the tragic 
writers in the sense of a goddess, but never when joined 
with the name of the goddess, as here. Hipp. 00. 

9. 'A&ooj sometimes occurs in the sense of audeo, to dare, 
as in Heracl. 950. Pers. 335. and elsewhere. Hipp. 74. 

10. "QariQ in the singular is frequently followed by and 
referred to a plural. See Antig. 718. 720. Androni. 180. 
Ban. 714. Hec. 359, 360. II. r. 279. Hipp. 78. 

11. Qav/ia^u) signifies to pay homage to, or honor. Hipp. 
105. 

12. IloXXa \aipuv <ppaaai denotes, to bid good bye to ; 
to quit ; to reject ; to discard. See Again. 583. Acharn. 
200. Hipp. 112. 

13. ^vyyvwfir)v lx uv signifies, (1) to grant pardon, and 
(2) to receive pardon or excuse. The former sense is the 
more frequent. (1) See Eur. Suppl. 252. Orest. 653. 
Soph. Electr. 400. (2) Phcen. 1009. Soph. Trach. 328. 
Hipp. 116. 

14. The penult of fyapog is generally short in the tragic 
writers, but always long in Homer. iEsehylus has it long, 
Choeph. 9. Qapm is a dactyl in Iph. T. 1157. and Orest. 
1434. Hipp. 125. 

15. 'AttXclkuv, airXaKia, and <x7rAaKj]jua, should be always 
written in tragic verse without ju, as is manifested from the 
fact, that there are many places in which the metre re- 
quires, none where it rejects these forms. Hipp. 145. 

16. The penult of yspaibg, $d\aiog, 'lktciioq, &c. is some- 
times short. See Gaisford's Hephsest, p. 216. Hipp. 
170. 

17. 'A/OEffjcw in Attic Greek requires either a dative or 
accusative case ; but the latter seems to be the more legi- 



452 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

timate construction. Moeris, p. 175. says, *HjO£<r! /ut, 'At- 
TtKug' rj/oacre fioi, * EWriviKiog, k<u kqivuq. Hipp. 184. 

18. The active voice of owa7rra> is sometimes used for 
the middle. See Phcen. 714. Heracl. 811. Pers. 888. 

19. $>i\og in the poets has frequently the sense of £p.6g* 
Hipp. 199. 

20. nponoXog signifies either a male or a female attend- 
ant ; afi(j>'nro\oQ only a female attendant. See Eustath. II. 
T. p. 394, 31 = 299, 1. Hipp. 200. 

21. Uiog av denotes in almost all the tragedies of Eu- 
ripides, utinam, I wish, or, oh that ! but much more 
rarely in the other tragic writers. See however (E. R. 765. 
Aj. Fl. 388. and Philoct. 794. Hipp. 208. 

22. The iota at the end of the dative singular is very 
rarely elided by the tragic writers : perhaps there are not 
more than six instances of such elision in all the remains of 
Greek tragedy. Hipp. 221. 

23. The last syllable of k\itvq is short in the tragic 
writers, but long in Homer. Hipp. 227. 

24. IlapaKOTTTeiv <j>plvag signifies to pervert the under- 
standing ; but napaKOTTTuVi as also irapairaluvi is more 
frequently used in a neutral sense, to be mad. 

25. Mala is said of a grandmother, a midwife, a nurse* 
The last sense is the more frequent meaning of it. Hipp. 243. 

26. 'OSwaw, though used in Hipp. 247. does not occur: 
in any other passage in the Greek tragedies. 

27. The last syllable of Aiav, ayav, iripav, and tvav, m 
always long in the Attic poets. Hipp. 264. 

28. r OptJ fxlv . . . aatifia §' i7jutv. The enallage or change 
from the first person singular to that of the plural, stud 
versa vice, is very common in the Greek tragedies. Hipp, , 
268. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 453 

29. The neuter plural 'adjective is frequently used instead 
of the singular, aar\p.a for acrjj/zov, %vyy vmgtcl (Hec. 1089. 
Phoen 1008. Med. 491. 701. &c.) for Ivyyv uhttov. Hipp. 
269. 

30. "Ar»j in the tragic writers is said of any calamity, but 
especially of some severe dispensation of Providence. Hipp. 
276. 

31. The prepositive article, 6, 17, to, followed by julv, §c, 
yap, is frequently used by the tragic writers in the sense 
of ovtoq and tKUvog. Even without these adjuncts, the 
article, though less frequently, possesses this signification. 
Hipp. 280. 

32. Both the forms irXdvog and vrXdvi} occur in the 
tragic writers. In JEschylus the feminine form generally, 
perhaps invariably, is found, whereas Euripides always uses 
ifXdvog : from whence it may be inferred, that the latter 
form prevailed after the time of iEschylus. Hipp. 283. 

33. ETev is an exclamation employed where the subject 
under discussion is abandon ed, and a new topic of conver- 
sation started. Hipp. 297. 

34. The verbs olcJa, yiyvioaKW, jmavOdvb), alaOdvofiai, &c. 
and their compounds, are joined to participles of the pre- 
sent, perfect, and future — seldom, and yet sometimes, to 
those of the aorist : as &voiSa ootpog wv. *i<jQl SvoiroTfiog 
ytywg. See Trach. 741. Soph. Electr. 1200. Hipp. 304. 

35. The tragic writers used the double forms, lirmog and 
fonrctoc, SovXiog and SouXuog, Ba.K\iog and BaK\Hog, 7rap- 
Otviog and irapOevuog. Hipp. 307. 1297. 

36. v Epoc and yiXog are the iEolic forms of the words 
"Epwg and y{\tog. The former is frequently used by Homer, 
(but only in the nominative and accusative cases), and by 
Euripides five times ; in other Attic writers it is doubtful 
whether znog occurs at all. Hipp. 337. 



454 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

37. Tt 7ra<7x«€ ; is an interrogation used by the Attic 
writers in the sense of the English exclamation, tohdt aits 
you f Hipp. 340.. 

38. The verb avtx^Oat is often joined to a participle, as 
Movtig yap, olda, aov k\ihov avi&rm. Pers. 835. See also 
Med. 38. Aj. Fl. 411. Soph. Electr. 1028. and Valck. 
Phcen. 550. Hipp. 354. 

39. 'A AX' ofiwg are words frequently employed by Euri- 
pides at the end of an iambic senary, and often ridiculed 
by Aristophanes. Hipp. 358. 

40. The Greeks said irpiv ore Qavuv, and irpiv av crv Oavrjg, 
but not irpiv av as Oavzlv. Hipp. 365. 

41. In Attic Greek, instead of the dual feminine, the 
masculine is used, especially in articles and participles. See 
Horn. II. O. 455. Hipp. 389. 

42. The particle wg at the beginning of a sentence 
preceding an optative mood signifies, ntinam, I wish, or, oh 
that! See II. 2. 107. Hipp. 409. 

43. Qavkog, fxdraiog, op(pavbg> GTtppbg* yevvalog, Sitcaiog, 
fizXtog, fipvxiog, and some other adjectives are declined, 
6 tca\ fi <jEmvXoc> &c ; and also (j>av\oc, rj, ov. Phil. 437. 

44. The interposition of the words irug SokeTc ; gives ad- 
ditional spirit to a narrative. See Hec.jll50. Ran. 53. 
Eccles. 399. Hipp. 448. 

45. ^ripyuv in the sense of acquiescing ; is frequently 
found— for the most part with an accusative, sometimes 
with a dative case. Hipp. 460. 

46. "AvOpwirog is used sometimes to denote a woman. 
See Theocr. Adoniaz. 106. and Valckenaer's note. Homo 
in Latin has the same meaning. Hipp. 474. 

47. Examples of (1) the double comparative, such as 
juaXXov a\yi(Dv, and (2) of the double superlative, such as 
fxiyiGTov I'x&oroe, are frequent in the tragic writers. See 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 455. 

Hec. 381. Sept. Theb. 679. iEsch. Suppl. 287. Med. 1320. 
Alcest. 802. Hipp. 487. 

48. The forms tKXyaa, icAr^e, icXyOpov, for %K\et(ra,K\u^tg, 
icXaiOpov, are of tke more recent Attic, and introduced into 
the writings of the tragedians by grammarians. Hipp. 500. 

49. A short vowel at the end of a preposition, preceding 
another word commencing with the letters $p, remains 
short ; but if that other word begins with j3A, the short 
vowel is made long. Hipp. 513. 

50. The prepositive article 6, 17, to, is frequently put for 
the relative og, ??, o, not only in Homer, but in the writings 
of the three tragedians. Hipp. 527. 

51. IlwXoc was said by the Greeks of either a young un- 
married man or woman. [The same remark applies to 
aKVfjLvbg, fxoayog, and other names of the young of animals.] 
Hipp. 547. 

52. The participle of the present tense [as also the pre- 
sent tense itself] denotes the attempt to effect the action 
contained in the verb. Hipp. 592. 

53. In solemn adjurations and appeals, such as o» irpog 
<T£ yova.T(*)v> the pronoun is always placed between the pre- 
position and the noun which it governs ; and the verb on 
which the pronoun depends, avrojucu, itcvovfxai, tK€srstJO% or 
some similar word, is frequently omitted. Hipp. 603. 

54. Fa^pbg seems to denote any relation by marriage ; 
but in the tragic writers it generally signifies a son-in-law . 
Hipp. 631. 

55. When the Greeks wished to express any thing future, 
on which something else was contingent, then they prefixed 
the conjunctions, "va, wg, o<ppa y &c. to the preterimperfect,, 
aorists, or preterpluperfect tenses of the indicative mood, 
just as the case required. This construction" must be care- 



456 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

fully distinguished from the usage of wg, \va, &c. with the 
subjunctive and optative moods. They could say, XQV Tpod- 
7roAov ov irtpav, — -Iv %x o)Gl W re •••!•©• that they may 
be able neither — . They could say, ouk uwv irpoawoXov 
7rf|oav, — tv exoitv firjTE . . . i. e. that they might be able 
neither — . But it is a very different thing to say, \pr\v 
7rp6<j7ToXov ov irepav — tV u\ov ju^rt ... in which case they 
would be able neither—. See (E. E. 1386. 1391. P. V. 158. 
774. Ohoeph. 193. Iph. T. 354. Pax. 135. Eccles. 151. 
Hipp. 643. 

56. "Ec re, signifying as long as, is construed with an me- 
dicative, k'e r£ av with a subjunctive mood. Hipp. 655. 

57. Et av no where occurs in the same member of a sen- 
tence, much less when joined to the indicative mood. Hipp. 
679. 

58. IloXXa Trpaaouv is said of one who meddles with 
things not concerning him. There is a similar signification 
in the words iroXvirpayfiiov, iroXvirpaynovuv, TroXvirpayfio- 
<tvvy} — irepiaaa, irpaaauv. Hipp. 785. 

59. Quopoi were persons who went to consult the ora- 
cles of the gods on any private or public affairs. Hipp, 
792. 

60. IlirOiwg yrtpag is a periphrastic expression for " the 
aged Pittheus." In designating persons, the tragic writers 
[and poets generally] frequently employ circumlocutions ; 
and those chiefly. which expressed some dignity or excel « 
lence, moral or personal. Hipp. 794. 

61. Those who received favorable responses from the 
oracle at Delphi, used to return home crowned with laurel. 
See GE. R. 82. Hipp. 806. 

62. MatcioTog is used by the poets for niyiproq, as fxao* 
gwv is for fxtiZwv. Hipp. 820. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 45? 

63. — OeXu ti or)ixr\vai viov ; these euphemisms, in which 
kcikov is understood, are very frequent in the tragic writers. 
Hipp. 860. 

64. Scu'vav is said of dogs, who wag their tails when they 
fawn on men. Hence aaivuv and irpoaaaivuv signify to 
fawn on, to please, to flatter. Hipp. 866. 

65. Ylpog in the sense of besides, with rovroig understood, 
occurs frequently, as well in the tragic as in other writers. 
See Heracl. 642. Phcen. 619. 890. P. V. 73. Helen. 965. 
Hipp. 875. 

66. 'AvrXib) and l^avrXiw are properly said of exhausting 
by means of an avrXog or pump ; and metaphorically, of 
completing life. In the same sense the Latins used the 
derivative exantlare. Hipp. 902. 

67. Noorav, in the tragic writers, is frequently said of 
those who labor under any evil, misfortune, or danger, [and 
may be rendered, " to be distressed."] Hipp. 937. 

68. Kcnrr)\tvii) denotes, to be an innkeeper ; and thence, 
to derive gain by fraudulent means. See Dr. Blomf. Sept. 
Theb. 551. Hipp. 956, 7. 

69. Ta fiXrara is frequently used by Euripides to desig- 
nate a parent, a husband, a wife, or children ; and in gene- 
ral may be translated, the dearest objects or connexions, 
Hipp. 969. 

70. The Attics form tine crasis of 6 avrbg, 6 avrjp, 6 ava%, 
o ayijjVj o ayauog, o trepog, by avrog, a vr)p, a vat, a ytvv, 
&c. Hipp. 1005. 

71. "AOtKTog has both (1) an active and (2) a passive 
signification : (1) Not touching. See (E. C. 1521. (so also 
atyawxroe, (E. K. 968.) (2) Not to be touched; hallowed. 
See Iph. T. 709. Agam. 380. The same remark will ap- 
ply to aKXavarog, acrrivaKTog. Hipp. 1006. 



-Hi 
•3 £*4 



. as* 



458 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



72. OIkuv oikov or Sojuov in the tragic writers signifies, 
to be the master of a house or family. Hipp. 1014. 

73. Xaipu>v is said of one who is exempt from punish- 
ment, and may be rendered, with impunity, KXacuv is op- 
posed to it, and may, in the second person, be rendered, to 
your cost See CE. R. 363. Antig. 759. Med. 399. Androm. 
756. Hipp. 1098. 

74. The Attics used the Doric form apape, not apvpe : as 
also, besides the instances given by Porson, Orest. 26. (see 
Class. Journ. No. lxi. p. 137.) they said daicog, and its com- 
pounds ; yanovoQ, 'yaTTtrrje, ya7redov, yap,opog, yairoTog, 
yaTOfiog, Kapavov and its compounds. Hipp. 1093. 

75. The futures ^ev^o/nat and (pevZovfiat were both used 
by the tragic writers. Hipp. 1096. 

76. The ellipsis of the preposition <rvv is very common 
with the Greek writers, and especially when the dative of 
the pronoun avrbg is added. See II. 6. 24. A. 698. Y. 481. 
Hipp. 1184. 

77. The iEolic and Doric form ztcpv^Osv for ltcpv<l>Qri<Tav 
is very rarely used by the tragic writers. Hipp. 1242. 

78. Xpzwv in the sense of fate or necessity is indeclina- 
ble, and always requires the article in Euripides. Hipp. 
1251. 

79. The erases in the words r) utzvai and firj u&ivai are 
not uncommon in the tragic writers ; as also those in fj ou, 
jurj ov : the erases jlitj ovroc, Iph. T. 1010. t) oix6p.&a0\ Soph. 
Trach. 84. ?} evyivuav, Eur. Electr. 1104. are more unu- 
sual. Hipp. 1331. 

80. XaipiD sometimes takes after it an accusative of the 
thing for which the rejoicing takes place ; the figure is 
called an Oropism. Hipp. 1335. 

81. The Greeks frequently used the aorist in & sense 



THE GEECIAN DKAMA. 459 

little differing from the present, as elirov, Med. 274. vttuttov^ 
Eur. Suppl. 1170. KaT^KTupa, Iph. A. 469. $uw£a, Med. 
787. cnrtiTTvaa, Hipp. 610. Hipp. 1403. 

82. The present tenses, diyyavuv, Ipvyyavuv, (pvyyd- 
vetv, Kiy\dvuv, \ay\dvHv, rvyydvuv, §ukvuv (contracted 
from dayndveiv), Xafifidvuv, fiavOdvuv, TrvvOdveaOai, are de- 
rived from the aorists fltyav, Ipvyuv, (f>vyuv, KL^uvy Xayuv, 
Tvxzivt SctKtlv, Xafiuv, fxaOelv, 7rv0£(j6ai, by the insertion of 
the letters v or p.. To these may be added avMvuv from 
aduv. Hipp. 1442. 

83. Kat never forms a crasis with, nor suffers elision 
before, ?%. Hipp. 1445. 

84. The Greeks had four forms of the future with a pas- 
sive signification, (1) Tipricropat, (2) (5tfi\r)<jopcu, (3) /3Xrj- 
0/]<tojucu, (4) cnraWayriaofjiaL. The 4th form is not very 
frequent among the tragic writers. To the 1st form the 
Attics seem to have been partial : the following occur in the 
Greek tragedians : A^o/itu, Tip.rjGop.ai, oTspfiaopai, Knpv£o- 
pai, aXwjOjuat, tdaopaii p.iGr\Gopai, GTvyr)Gopai, driXwGopai, 
fiovXtvaofiai, lvi%opat, dp^opai, didd^opai, ETTiTa^ojucu, &c. 
Hipp. 1458. 

85. ov drj xoXuO&q]. Here wwa is understood. The 
cause of hatred is expressed by a genitive case without a 
preposition. See Orest. 741. Here. F. 528. 1114. II. A. 
429. n. 320. <P. 457. Alcest. 5. 

86. An accusative case is frequently placed in opposition 
with the meaning implied in the preceding sentence ; as 
Orest. 1103. 'EXsvrjv Kravtoptv, MevbXuo Xvtttjv iriKpdv. 
See Phoen. 351. Androm. 291. Here. F. 59. 355. 427. 
Alcest. 7. 

87. The preposition after verbs of motion to is frequently 
omitted. Alcest 8. 



460 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

88. After verbs of rescuing, prohibiting, and denying, 
the negative jut), though generally expressed, is sometimes 
omitted; as ov davttv sppvadfiriv. Alcest. 11. 

89. The plural rtjual is used in the sense of attributes, 
prerogatives. Alcest. 30. 

90. The ancient Greek writers never joined the particle 
av to the indicative mood of either the present or perfect. 
Alcest. 48. 

91. f hp6g, in the sense of consecrated or sacred to, re- 
quires a genitive case. Alcest. 75. 

92. In anapaestic verse the penult of fiiXaBpov is always 
short. Alcest. 77. 

93. The interrogative wodev has the force of a negative. 
Alcest. 95. 

94. In sentences where two nouns joined by a copulative 
are governed by the same preposition, the preposition is 
frequently found with the latter noun. 

MeXXwv Se irtfiTTUv fi OlSiirov icXttvoc yovog 
MavTtia <refxva, Ao&ov r S7T 1 zaxapag. 

Phoen. 290. See also Heracl. 755. (E. E. 736. 761. Soph. 
Electr. 780. Sept. Theb. 1034. 

95. The plural forms tcoipavoi, avaKTtg, fiaaiXzig, rvpav- 
voi) in the tragic writers, frequently express only one king, 
or the retinue of one king. Alcest. 132. 

96. There are many active verbs which have their futures 
of the middle, and no where of the active form, at least 
among the Attic writers : thus, clkovw, oryw, (riwrrtj, ciEw, 
/3ow, ajuapravd), Ovyigku), tt/tttw, kAcuu, 7rXlw> irviit), have 
the futures atcovaofim, myfiaoficu, auorrriaonai, qaofiat, j3o/i- 
aofim, ap.aprriaopLai^ Oavovfiai, 7T£(tou/ucu, K\av<jo/iai, 7rX£v<ro- 
liai, irvevGOfjim. Alcest. 158. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 461 

97. Ov never forms a crasis with oviroTe so as to make 
ovttote. Alcest. 199. 

98. In the choral odes the sigrna is sometimes doubled ; 
as, Med. 832. atyvavaiiivav, Eur. Suppl. 58. oaaov, Pers. 
559. j3api'&<r«, GE. R. 1100. qpeaafidTa, Trach. 636. jueV 
aav, Aj. Fl. 185. roaaov, 390. okiacraq, Philoct. 1163. 7TE- 
Xaaaov. Sophocles uses the form fxhaog twice in the iambic 
senary; viz. Antig. 1223. 1236. Alcest. 234. 

99. It is very doubtful whether the Attic writers ever 
used pi£u) in the present tense. Alcest. 272. 

100. ToXjitav and the aorist rXrjvac signify, to endure, in 
spite of (1) danger, i. e. to have courage ; (2) shame, i. e. 
to have the impudence ; (3) pride, i. e. to deign, condescend, 
submit ; (4) pain of mind, i. e. to prevail on oneself ; (5) 
pity, i. e. to have the cruelty. Alcest. 285. The uses of 
possum are similar. 

101. "OSf avrip, for lyw, is a well-known formula. The 
feminine form rjSe and ?$e yvvrj, for *yw, occurs also in 
Agam. 1447. and Trach. 305. Alcest. 341. 

102. The tragic writers were partial to the use of vweaol 
for children. See Androm. 442. Iph. A. 1248. Heracl. 
240. Here. F. 224. 982. Alcest. 414. 

103. 'Attuttuv with an accusative signifies, to renounce ; 
with a dative, to fail or faint. Alcest. 503. 

104. With verbs of motion, the Greeks joined a future 
participle denoting the object. Alcest. 520. 

105. The tragic writers allowed the omission of the aug- 
ment in the choral odes. Alcest. 599. 

106. Aldrjp is found both in the masculine and feminine 
gender. Alcest. 610. 

107. The penult of (jtdlvtx) and <j>0avu) is long in Homer, 
but always short in the Attic writers. Alcest. 638. 



462 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

108. The tragic writers were partial to compounds, such 
as al$6(f>pit)v, aXKitppwv, m<$rip6(j>p(*>v, &c. Alcest. 678. 

109. Ofoc is frequently said of the sun, and generally 
without the article. SeeOrest. 1023. Eur. Suppl. 208. Med. 
353. Alcest. 738. 

110. The chorus very rarely quits the stage after its first 
entrance till the conclusion of the tragedy. A few instances 
however occur where it does. Alcest. 762. Aj. Fl. 814. and 
Eumen. Alcest. 762. 

111. The form oTSac, for the common olvOa, is not very 
frequent. Alcest. 796. 

112. 'A XXa gov to pfj Qpaaai. This construction is ex- 
pressive of indignation or admiration. See Nub. 818. 
Aves 5. Ran. 741. Alcest. 848. 

113. The following are instances of verbs transitive 
governing a genitive case, /xipog tl being understood : Ale. 
861. Hec.614. Herod.iii.il. Alcest. 861. 

114. Tfov vtto yaiag, not yalav: the accusative in such 
expressions is then only used, when motion is denoted. 
Alcest. 921. 

115. Several active verbs are used in a middle sense, the 
personal pronoun being understood ; as ptym, Cycl. 165. 
KpvTTTovra, Phoen. 1133. KpvTTTovmv, Soph. El. 826. ttoX- 
W, CE. R. 153. tcariaxov, CE. R. 782. Alcest. 922. 

116. The Greeks said viicav fia\r)v, vucqv ayiova, viKav 
asOXov. Alcest. 1048. 

117. EI yap frequently occur in an optative signification ; 
but in this usage there is a difference between the indica- 
tive and optative moods. El yap ax ov means > °h th&t ^ 
had ! u yap £X 0£ f"> on tna ^ I ma y nave • Alcest. 1091. 

118. The quantity of the enclitic vvv is sometimes long 
and sometimes short both in the tragic and comic writers, 
Alcest. 1096. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 4b3 

119. The iota at the end of the dative singular is some- 
times, though seldom, elided by the Attic poets. Alcest. 
1137. 

120. The ancients were accustomed to attribute heavy 
reverses of fortune to the envy of the gods. See Pers. 867. 
Orest. 963. Eur. Suppl. 347. Iph. A. 1049. Herod, iii. 40. 
Alcest. 1154. 



464 



THE GRECIAN* DRAMA, 



V. 

Canons and Remarks 
Collected from Elmsley ^ Porson, Datves, Matthice, Major^ $c. 



1. Tlarptya teal p.r]Tpioa irfi/jiaO' a-iraOeg. 

H. Stephens doubts how the a in airaOeg can be length- 
ened. It is made long in this place on account of the crasis 
of two short vowels, a and e, coalescing into one long a ; 
in the same manner as the a in rafxa, for to. tya, in aiceov 
for acKGJv, &c. &c. is lengthened. Elmsley in CEdip. Col. 
v. 1195. 

2. When the article ends in a vowel, and the following 
word begins with a vowel, the first syllable of that word is 
not elided, but coalesces by crasis into one syllable with the 
article. Thus, for rov 1/j.ov, rovfiov should be written, and 
not tov ''fiov. So also we should write ra&Ujofyxara, rovm- 
ovTOQ, TajjLa, twjuw, T??/iavrou, not ra '^v/or/juara, rov V(ov- 
toc, ra '/ua, rtj> 'juej>, rp 'fiavrov. In every crasis of two 
syllables, the iota of the former syllable is elided ; thus rav 
and rajoa, for rot av and rot apa. So also, for ot sjuloi and 
at ljuat, not ot '/not and at "'fiai, but ovfxol and ajwai should be 
written. Elmsley Prsefat. in CEdip. Tyr. 10-11. 

3. Nothing is more rare among the Attic poets than the 
elision of the vowel e before av ; eypmfr 9 av scripsissem is 
found more than ten times as often as typaip' av scripsisset* 
Elm. Med. 416. 

4. The diphthong cannot be elided in rot, but it renders 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 465 

the vowel long by crasis ; as, 'YiroeTtvoi fiivT av 6 BpavirriQ 
Xewg. This occurs especially in tol apa and tol av. 

5. The Attics, according to Porson, do not omit the 
augment. In the melic portions, however, according to 
Monk, the augment may be omitted. The following rules 
on this point are given by Hermann in his Praefat. ad 
Bacch. pp. 50-55. 

(1). A verb of consequence, in which the addition of the 
augment makes an anapaest, placed in the beginning of a 
verse, requires the augment added : as, lyivovro Ai]$a 0£<r- 
Tiadi rpug irapOivot. 

(2). A verb of consequence, in which the addition of the 
augment does not make an anapaest, placed in the begin- 
ning of a verse, may be without the augment : as aiyriae 
3' alOfip- 

(3). The same kind of verb, if it begins a sentence, may 
want the augment in the middle of a verse : as, yvfivovvro 8e 
7rX£UjOat airapayjj.oXg. 

(4). A verb of less consequence, whether the addition of 
the augment makes an anapaest or not, placed in the begin- 
ning of a verse, if it is extended beyond the first foot, wants 
the augment : as, Yoaro* Owv&v. 

(5) The same kind of verb, if it does not reach beyond 
the first foot, as it would be inharmonious without the aug- 
ment, is either avoided, or changed with another form. 

6. When the first part of a sentence designates, not 
what has been done, but what ought to be done, the parti- 
cles iW, d>c, ottwq, take after them the indicative, provided 
the discourse be concerning a thing present or past ; for 
concerning a future event the subjunctive or optative is 
used. Elmsley in CEdip. Tyr. v. 1389. 

7. Porson has remarked that the tragic writers have not 

H H 



466 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

universally observed Dawes' well-known rule, viz. il that the 
optative with the particles wg, ha, orrojg, of pa, fxrj, is sub- 
joined only to verbs of a past signification ; the subjunctive 
only to verbs of a present or future signification." Some- 
times indeed, though a verb of the past time precedes, yet 
the effect, which was aimed at, is either present or future ; 
and therefore the subjunctive is demanded. Monk. Hippol. 
1294. 

And, on the contrary, the optative in certain combina- 
tions is put after verbs of the present time, e. g. when the 
present (Ustoricum) is put for the aorist, as in the Latin 
also, the conj. imperf. follows the present. Matth. Gr. Gr. 
S.518. 

8. Ov ixavtiq, with a note of interrogation, is the same as 
ftlve; will you not stay? that is, stay ; ov fir) fievztg, will you 
not not stay ? i. e. will you not go away f same as jurj /ueve. 
Ov [xrj fievug is not to be confounded with ov f.irj fizivyg ; 
the former is the same as fxrj fiivs, the latter the same as ov 
fAsvtig. Ehnsley in Med. v. 1120. 

9. Dawes says that the particles ov fir) are construed 
either with the future indicative, or with the second aorist 
subjunctive. Elmsley says, that they may also be con- 
strued with the first aorist subjunctive. Ov fxrj with the 
future belongs to one who forbids, with the subjunctive to 
one who denies. Thus, ou jarj ypaxpsig is equivalent to firj 
ypa(f>s, but ov [xrj ypd\pyg to ov ypaipug. Ov fxrjis construed 
with the future indicative either of the active or middle 
form. Elmsley in (Edip. Col. vv. 177. 1024. 

10. The tragic writers frequently join irplv with the sub- 
junctive, omitting av, which is always required in familiar 
discourse. This is Person's observation. They do not 
however use the subjunctive, unless the signification of deny- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 467 

ing, or of prohibiting, be in the former member. The same 
rule holds with regard to the optative. It ma}' be re- 
marked, that the infinitive is frequently used for the sub- 
junctive, though the subjunctive is never used for the infini- 
tive. Elmsley in Med. v. 221. 

11. After an oath, such as, vrj Ata, vr) rdv Ata, julcl Ata, 
ov /no. Ala, vi) tqv 'AttoWu), &e. the particle ye never follows, 
unless after the interposition of another word. Porson. 
Adversaria, p. 33. 

12. It was usual for the Greeks, in an oath, to insert a 
word between the preposition and its case. Thus Eurip. in 
Hippol. v. 605. 

Nat irpoQ &l Tr)g ar)g de%iag evuikevov. 
And Virgil, imitating them. iEn. 4. 314. Per ego has lacry* 
mas. Elmsley ad (Ed. Col. Addend, p. 361. 

13. When a second person confirms or corrects the senti- 
ment of a former, the particle ye follows after $e, another 
word being sometimes interposed, and sometimes not. Por- 
son. Orest. 1234. 

14. The conjunctions real and $£ do not occur in the same 
member of a sentence, in the writers of the tragic age. 
Porson. ad Orest. 614. 

15. The Attics never conjoin ye re, re ye, ye fiev, a\\a 
Ufa. Porson. ad Med. 863. 

] 6. In tragic iambics, the second syllable of a tribrach, 
or of a dactyl, ought not to be either a monosyllable, which 
is incapable of beginning a verse, such as av, yap, §e : fiev, 
re, rig, or the last syllable of a word. Elmsley. 

1 7. Sophocles alone shortened the second syllable in fjjiuv 
and vfXiv. That he did forty-two times in the diverbial 
parts of all his plays. It is found long in seven verses, 
which Porson tliinks require to be corrected. Elmsley 



468 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



thinks it occurred by chance rather than by design, that he 
so seldom lengthened the last syllable. Euripides never 
shortened the last syllable of these pronouns. When it is 
shortened, they may be written either rj/xtv, vfxiv^ or ^juiv 9 
vfxiv ; the latter form is preferred by Brunck, and the more 
modern editors. Elmsley. Prsef. ad (Ed. Tyr. p. 10. 

18. The verbs aTroAavw, clkovu, ot'Sw, &c. &c. want the 
first future active, but have the first future middle ; on the 
contrary they want the first aorist middle, and have the first 
aorist active. Dawes. 

19. The verb ^|kw signifies, not venio, but vmi, or adsum* 
Dawes. 

20. The middle verb XiirsaBai does not admit an accusa- 
tive after it. Dawes. 

21. There is no second future active or middle in Greek. 
Tvtto) and tvttoi/u are the second aorist subjunctive and 
optative ; Tvirovfxai is not to be found, The difference of 
the Ionic and Doric futures has occasioned the mistake. 
The Ionic futures terminate the active form in aaio, *orw, fw, 
Tcra», and otrw, and the middle in aaofiai, eaofiai, £opai, itro- 
juat and oaofiat ; as, eXdacj, aytoviaofiai, &c. which forms 
are adapted to dactylic verse, which the Ionians preferred : 
the Attics, after a short syllable, in place of ao-w, £<ra>, «w 
and ocw, write w; for aaofxai, w/mai ; for saofiai, zofiai ; for 
oaofxm, ovfxai ; for Xau), iw ; and for Xaofxai, lovpai ; as cXw, 
aywviovjjLaL ; which forms are adapted to iambics and tro- 
chaics, which the Attics preferred : after a long syllable no 
change was made ; thus xopraaw, apiraaofjiai, &c. &c. are 
common to both. Dawes. 

22. <J>uAa<7(7w, in the active voice, signifies sermre, custo- 
dire ; in the middle, cavere. Dawes. 

23. The verbs ot/ragw and j3aXXo> are more frequently 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 469 

joined with only one accusative of the person ; as also the 
verb ciKtoficti ; sometimes with two accusatives, one of the 
person, the other of the word zXkoq ; but never with the 
dative. II. E. 361. Dawes. 

24. The verb apiaraw, with all its family, always makes 
long the first syllable. Dawes. 

25. In forming patronymics, the termination og or ov of 
the genitive is changed, after a short syllable, into idr]g, 
after a long into ia^g. Dawes. 

26. Neither Xuireiv, nor IkXuttuv, in the Attic writers, 
signifies to be deficient ; but IWuttuv. Dawes. 

27. Not the active verb cnroSidovai, but the middle cnrodi- 
SoaOm, signifies to sell. Dawes. 

28. Not the active verb evptlv, but the middle tvpiaOai, 
denotes what is expressed by the Latin nancisci, adipisci. 
Dawes. 

29. The first aorist active or middle of the verb zvpiGKU) is 
not in use. Dawes. 

50. The Attics express the Latin quodlibet by irav, not 
by to -rrav. Dawes. 

51. 'EjcKaXety signifies evocare ; eKKaXuaOai^ ad-se-evocare. 
Dawes. 

52. It was not lawful for the Attic poets to elide any 
diphthong, or to use the verb t'Sov without an augment, or 
to employ the verb iazrai at all. Dawes. 

33. The Attics used no future active of the verb ofxwfii ; 
they used the middle 6 ( uou/xat. Dawes. 

34. Though 7TEvojucu in Homer, sometimes signifies parare, 
in the Attic writers it never signifies any thing but paupe- 
rem esse ; nor does it ever govern the accusative. Dawes. 

35. The Attic writers never used Suw, always §vo. Dawes. 

36. The pronoun oSe is generally used on the appearance 



470 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

of a new character on the stage, and has the force of wSc or 
Ssvpo. Elmsley. 

37. When $tu, eTcv, 's'a, and similar interjections, are in- 
dependent of the verse, I put a full stop after them ; when 
they form part of the verse, a smaller one or none at all. 
Porson. 

38. The vowel in 6n never suffers elision in the comic 
writers. Porson. 

39. E'/Sr?c comes from aSw video, eldyg from a Sao scio. 
Major. 

40. Instead of the adjectives being considered, as in other 
languages, as epithets of the substantives, and put in the 
same case with them, in Greek the substantive is often con- 
sidered as the whole, and the adjective as the part ; and 
then the substantive is put in the genitive. The adjective 
has the gender of the substantive. The cases are very com- 
mon in which the substantive is put with the adjective in 
the plural ; as, ajxiyapra kqkiov, ot T^orjcrroi rCov avOpioTrwv* 
Matthiae. 

41. The particles koX fjirjv are of constant occurrence in 
announcing the entrance of a new character ; particularly in 
connexion with the remarks of the preceding speaker : and 
are usually put in the mouth of the chorus. Major. 

42. The imperative is used not unfreqnently by the Attic 
poets, in a dependent proposition after olaO^ o ; as, olaO'' ovv 
o dpavov ; the phrase seems to have arisen from a transpo- 
sition, for dpaaov, olaO'' 6. Matth. 

43. Adjectives which have an active sense, and are mostly 
derived from verbs active, or correspond to them, express 
their relation to an object, which with the verbs would be 
in the accusative, by the genitive ; as, icapSiac StiKTripta, 
(SaKvuv ti)v Kapdiav) that afflict the heart. Matth. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 471 

44. T&w TtOvrjKOTcov a\ig. Hec 278. Dawes has re- 
marked that a\ig is never construed with a genitive in 
Homer. 

45. The Greek term (juXoTrciTpig was nearly synonymous 
with (j)i\677o\iQ, signifying merely attachment to a particu- 
lar commonwealth, or more frequently only to a party in 
that commonwealth ; to express the more liberal patriotism, 
extending to the whole nation, the Greeks used the term 
(j>i\£X\r}v. Mitford. 

46. When the Greeks express a person by a circumlocu- 
tion, they return as soon as possible to the person itself ; thus 
Homer says /3/ij 'HpajcArjarj, oairep. Porson. 

47. Avrog without the article does not mean idem, but 
ipse ; Stephens cites tovrbg, but I have edited avrbg from 
the rule laid down by Dawes, and from analogy. Porson. 

48. A negative frequently usurps the place of an interro- 
gative ; as in Hec. 296. zhv frequently precedes an interro- 
gation. Porson. 

49. The relative is frequently in the singular, when the 
antecedent is in the plural. This takes place when it re- 
fers not so much to a determinate person or thing, as to all 
of the species to which the preceding substantive belongs, 
or when a word of general import, as nag, precedes. Hence 
also, in this case, oang, or og av is commonly put. Vide 
II. n. 621. Hec. S59. Matth. 

50. The future for the conjunctive is the regular con- 
struction after oirwg, which indeed takes the present, the 
aor. ] . pass, and aor. 2. in the conjunctive, but instead of 
the aor. 1. act. and mid. requires the future, and this, 
whether it be governed by a verb preceding, or that opa, 
cave, is omitted. In the passages where the aor. 1. conj. 
still remains after o-rrwg, 6ne or other of the MSS., or edi- 



472 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

tions, generally has the future. But ottuq av, that, takes 
the conj. and aor. 1. act. Matth. 

51. El/ni and its compounds have always a future signifi- 
cation, not only in the Attic writers, but also in Homer. II. 
A. 169. Dawes. 

52. In Greek, the plural is often used for the singular, 
for the sake of greater emphasis, as in the Hec. 403. 
TOKtvcnv, the mother. Matth. 

53. When any one wishes to dissuade another from any 
thing by entreaties, jut) av ye is very commonly used with the 
omission of the verb preceding. Hec. 408. Matth. 

54. The Greeks always said x^P^y an( ^ no ^ X^'p /**"* 
Hence xaipoficu for x at ?> w is & solecism, to which they gave 
the name of Datism, from Datis, the Persian general, who, 
on the reduction of Naxos, made use of the following line : 
r QiQ rido/iai, Kol TtpTTOfiai, kcu \aipofxai. Porson. 

55. Avuj has the first syllable common in Homer ; long 
in the tragic writers. The first syllable of ko\6q is long in 
Homer, common in Hesiod and Theocritus, and short in 
the tragic writers. Major. 

56. If a woman, speaking of herself, uses the plural num- 
ber, she also uses the masculine gender ; if she uses the 
masculine gender, she also uses the plural number. Dawes. 

57. The use of the article for the relative is frequent in 
Homer, and in Ionic and Doric writers ; of Attic writers 
the tragedians only use it in this sense, not the comic and 
prose authors ; and these only in the neuter and oblique 
cases. Matth. 

58. Nouns masculine in wv make feminines in aiva ; as, 
Oepcnrwv, Otpcnraiva. Major. 

59. The first aorist in Greek, and the perfect in Latin, 
frequently have the force of soleo. Hec. 596. Hor. Od. 1. 
34. Major. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 473 

60. The word iri-rrXog is applicable both to the t/xartov, 
the outer loose and flowing garment ; and to the x f ™v, the 
inner and close-fitting vest : but more peculiarly to the 
former, which the Lacedaemonian virgins alone wore. See 
Virg. JEn. 1. 315. In the festival of the TIava6{)vaia, the 
sacred irzirXog was carried to the citadel, and put upon Mi- 
nerva's statue. This 7riir\og was woven by a select number 
of virgins called "* Epy aaTiKai, from ipyov, work. On it were 
described the achievements of Minerva. Jupiter also, and 
the heroes, who were famous for valiant exploits, had their 
effigies in it ; whence men of true courage are said to be 
aZiot 7T£7rXou, i. e. worthy to be pourtrayed in Minerva's 
sacred garment. Potter. 

61. In prohibitions with pi), or an adj. or adv. com- 
pounded with firi, the aor. is put in the conjunctive, and not 
the present. Hec. 959. Matth. 

62. For tig, when it expresses a proper motion, wg is 
often put, generally with living objects, seldom with inani- 
mate things. This usage probably arose from the circum- 
stance of d)g and dg being often joined. Matth. 

63. In negative propositions, the conj. is used after fxrj or 
ov firj for the future, but only the conj. aor. 1. pas. or aor. 
2. act. and mid.; instead of the aor. 1. act. the future is 
used. Matth. 

64. r) and jur/ before ov always form a crasis in iambic 
verse. Major. 

65. The Attics frequently add ye after kcu firiv, ov firiv, 
icaiToi, etc., but with something intervening. Porson. 

66. The Attics sometimes use ju/]7to> for fxt]iroTe, by the 
figure \iTOTt}g. Kal and Se cannot stand in the same clause 
of a sentence. Porson. 



474 THE GRECIAN PRAMA. 



VI. 

A Sketch of the Principal Usages of the Middle Voice of the 
Greek verb, when its signification is strictly observed* 



QUI BENE DIVIDIT, BENE DOCET. 

The first four may be called usages of reflexive : the fifth 
the usage of reciprocal signification. 

I. Where A does the act on himself, or on what belongs 
to himself, i. e. is the object of his own action. 

1. 'A7nry£a7o, he hanged himself, 

2. ' £ltp,w%zv S' 6 yipwv, K£<j)a\rjv <T oye Koifiaro \zpoiv. 

Iliad. X. 33. 

II. Where A does the act on some other object M, rela- 
tively to himself (in the sense of the dative case put acquisi- 
tively), and not for another person, B. 

1. A Ka.TEGTp£\paro rov MijoW. 

. He made the Persian subject, or subdued him, to himself 
A KariaTptxpE rov Mf)o\)v rw B. res prorsus alia* 

2. To this usage belongs the following : 

Koivy cnrojcrafjievoL rbv Bapflapov. Thucyd. 1. 18, et similia. 

III. Where A gets an act done for himself, or for those 
belonging him by B. 

1. Of Chryses it is said, \va6fievog Ovyarpa, to get his 
daughter released by Agamemnon, on the payment of a, ran- 
som, that is, briefly, to ransom his daughter. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA 



475 



Whereas of Agamemnon it is said, OvR airzXvcn Ovyarpa, 
sc. t$ Xpvay. He did not grant the release, he did not re- 
lease her. 

So too Chryses to the Greeks, TiuiSa §' lp.o\ \voclitz $ikr\v. 

To this head may be appended, dida^aaOai tov vlbv, to get 

one^s son instructed. Euripides has said, with a double 

idiom, Medea, v. 297. Tratdag Trzgiaowg hdiSaaKtaOai aofyovg. 

2. Aav£i£w, to give a loan, to lend, as A to B. 

Aave'iZofiai, to get a loan, to borrow, as A from B. 
So too in the epigram, ^p^anc, having lent ; xpy\aafxsvog, 
having borrowed. 

*Avipa Tig Xnroyvtov virlp v(Ltoio \nravyrjg 

^H-ye, 7ro$ag \prj(rag, ofijuLara \pr}<jafjLevog. 
Again \pr\am, to utter a response ; xpv aa(J ^ a h to see ^ <*» 
response, to consult an oracle. 

IV. Where, in such verbs as KoirTOfiai, lugeo, aevoinai, 
WAXojuctf, &c. the direct action is done by A on himself; 
but an accusative or other case follows of B, whom that 
action farther regards. 

...... mrep av clvtov 

'SevwvTai rax&g re Kvvtg, k. t. X. Iliad. I\ 25. 
Although fleet dogs stir themselves in pursuit of him. 

Atu)vv(Toio TiOr'jvag 

2£ue . . . Z. 133. • . res prorsus alia. 
Again, 

HpUTCll TOV y* oXo^OC H $lXrj KCll TTOTVia fJ.l]T1}p 

TiXXiaOnv. Q. 710. 11. 
Tore their hair in mourning over him. 
But KttoofJiai is differently used. Bion has Kupafizvoi \ai- 
rag Iff 'A^wviSi, not^Adwviv. 

To this class belong ^vXaTTtj and <pv\aTTop.m. 

<PvX«?cu rbv iralda. — (f>v\a%a<rQai tov XzovTa, 



476 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

And so too the following : 

l £2c uttwv, ov TTaiSog opt^aro (paidijuoQ^EKTiop, 
Stretched out his arms to receive Ms son. 
Thus far the reflexive uses : now the reciprocal use. 

V. Where the action is reciprocal betwixt two persons, 
or parties, and A does to B what B does to A. 

As in verbs of contract, quarrel* war, reconciliation, and 
the like : 

"Eajg av ^laXvawjizSa rov woXefxov. Demosth. Philip. A. 
§. 6. — -Till toe shall have put an end to the war in which 
we are engaged with Philip, by treaty mutually agreed 
upon. 

In a very different sense, as follows, is SiaXvoat used : 
Hapi]vu Se (' AXki^lcl^q) kcli rio TurGCKptpvy jjiri ayav lirdyev 
6ai tov 7roAfjuov SiaXvaai. Thucyd. vm. §. 46. — To he in no 
hurry to put an end to the war between the two conflicting 
parties in Greece. 

Remark. — Though on some occasions the active voice is 
used where the middle would be proper, that is, where the 
act is denoted without relation to the agent, though there 
does exist a middle verb so to denote it, yet where the two 
voices exist in actual use, the middle denoting the action 
relatively to the agent, as in No. II. , is very seldom, if ever, 
in pure Attic used to denote the action when it regards 
another person. E. g. 'Iaravai rpoiraiov may be said of an 
army who erect their own trophy ; for it is true, as far it 
goes — they do erect a trophy. But Igtyigcito Tpowmov can- 
not be said of him who erected a trophy for others, but 
zartiaev only. — Mus. Crit. No. 1. pp. 102—104. 

VI. Verbum TvwTOfiai videtur ex tribus elementis confla- 
tum earn primitus habuisse naturam, quam lingua Anglicana 
sic effert simpliciter, I strike me ; deinde in eum usum 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 477 

abiise, ut significaret, I get a blow, i. e. not give one ; de- 
nique sumpsisse vim pure passivam. 

Hanc conjecturam confirmat Latinse linguse ratio; quae 
apud poetas certe verba passiva cum vocibus vi media* prse- 
ditis passim permutat. 

iEn. i. 587. scindit, se, n. 39, scinditur : 
ii. 401. conduntur, ix. 39, condunt, se : 
— 707. imponere, h. e. impone, ie, &c. 
Glasgow Greek Grammar, p. 59, 4th Ed. 1834. J. T. 
Burnouf in his excellent French Grammar of the Greek 
tongue, at p. 268, has this very appropriate observation : 

En Fran^ais meme, nous voyons le verbe reflechi employe 
dans le sens passif : " Les histoires ne se Uront plus." Bos- 
suet, that is, will not le read. 

VII. While the middle verbs, of iroiu> and riOrifu, for in- 
stance, are requisite, to indicate the tahing or considering 
of any object in such or such a light, &c. ; some other verbs, 
such as ayw, Xajuj3ava>, in the active form so called, are 
found with a similar acceptation. 
Iph. Aul. 607. 

"OpviOa jj.lv roS 1 alaiov iroiodfieOa, k. r. X. 
We taJce this as an auspicious omen, fyc. 
Phoen. 872. 'Chwvov ld£fir\v KaWivitca era &ri(pri. 
I consider as a good augury the victorious garland you wedf* 
Antigone, 34. to irpayfi ayeiv \ ov\ we Trap* ovZiv. 
Thucyd. B. §. 42. ttjv twv Ivavriojv TtjAwptav TroQeivori- 
pav avrwv XafiovTzg. — Having regarded the humbling of their 
adversaries as a far more desirable object, fyc. 

VIII. It is a distinction well deserving of remark, that 
while several verbs in w are used of matter and actions con- 
nected with it, those in o/xcu have the province of mind and 
its concerns instead. 



478 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

Thus II. A. 607, 8. Swjua— 'Rqcikttoq wotriaev. 
But Thucyd. B. §§. 42, 4. 

avafioXrjv rov detvov liroiriaaro. 
lie thought of delaying or eluding the danger. 
So too, II. A. 433. 

iaria fjilv ardXavTO, Qiaav c Iv vr\i jucXaivr?. 
Prom. V. 247. Ovyitovq & Iv oikt^ TrpoOipevog. 

IX. 1. The tenses (apparently, originisvi, whatever that 
be) most decidedly passive in use, are the two aorists and 
two futures passive so called. 

2. While the first future middle frequently occurs (it is 
well known) with a passive use, the first aorist middle on the 
other hand hardly ever seems to lose its proper acceptation. 

Thus, Xl£u, thou shalt be reckoned ; but never ripZapriv, 
I was ruled, nor lypaxparo, it was written, 

3. The idea of a preterite middle with a reflexive signifi- 
cation is now rejected (Glasgow Greek Grammar, p. 65) ; 
and the separate form when it does exist, is more aptly de- 
signated second preterite or falso-medium. 

When the tense of any verb is wanted to express that 
notion, the preterperfect passive is adopted, de persond ; 
while its common use prevails more, de re. 

II. A. 238, 9. . . . . SikcktttoXoi, ol re Oe^iarag 
irpbg Aibg ilpvarai. 

A. 248 tvOa T£ vwq 

tlpvar' ivirpvjuvot. i. e. tlpvarai = slpvvrai. 

X. Verbs in the passive voice when indicating the affec- 
tions of mind, or the facts of motion, are frequently so used 
without any reference to external cause, or agent whatso- 
ever ; that is, are not meant to signify any thing about 
action, or the modus operandi, but the effect or state only, 
as it regards the subject of the verb, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 47$ 

Thus, II. A. 531. rwy' wg fiovX&ixravTS SiirfiayeV' 

Hecuba, 1090. irot Tpcnrtofiai ; irol iroptvdio ; 
Medea, 1241. jutjc)' avafivnaQrig tUvwv. 

In other words, then, the passive form on occasions like 
these is employed, when the middle voice might naturally 
else be expected. Such, at any rate, is the best account 
we can give of this matter in particular. 

But upon the whole, may we not generally remark, that 
the ways in which things take place, and the relations to 
one another, in which they require to be spoken of, seem to 
defy definition or number ; while the voices of the verb 
(essential as that is to discourse), even in Greek amount to 
three at the most? No wonder it should happen, that 
words, only in a loose manner, often very rudely, hint, that 
some connexion exists betwixt certain ideas, without any 
pretence to mark the precise mode of it. The occasion is 
individual : the forms of language are universal. And yet 
to the context with its circumstances rightly apprehended 
and to the vis-directrix of common sense, the rest of the 
operation may very safely be left. 



480 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



VII. 

On the Greek Dialects, 
From the Classical Journal, vol. 17, p. 84. 



The Grecian dialects are, strictly speaking, three : 

(1). The Ionic, spoken by the inhabitants of Attica, 
Achaia, and Ionia. [The Athenians and Achaians are 
called by Homer 'Iaovfc. 'laovcc is applied to the Athe- 
nians by iEschylus.] 

(2). The Doric, spoken in the mountainous parts of 
Greece, particularly those in Peloponnesus. 1 

(3). The JEolic, which was the oldest, (and similar to the 
Doric), spoken by the Thessalians and Boeotians, who in- 
troduced it into the Peloponesus. 

(1). The Ionic was carried into Asia by Neleus, the son 
of Oodrus — was there spoken in its original form — but in 
Attica changed into a more refined and elegant state, called 
the Attic — which, in fact, is nothing but contracted Ionic. 
The Attic is divided into three classes : 



The Old. 
Under this, 
ThucydideSj 
iEschylus, 
Sophocles, 
Euripides, 



The Middle. 
Aristophanes, 
Plato, 



The New. 
Xenophon, 
Menander, 
Philemon, 
Isocrates, 
Demosthenes, 
JEschines, 
and the other orators. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



481 



The tragedians used an older'east of language than was 
employed by the Attics in their common writings. Hence 
we find the Ionic forms, /novvog, fialvog, Sovpi, OvXvfnrog, 
&c. iEschylus, of the three tragedians, has the most of 
these forms ; Euripides, the fewest. More of these are to 
be found in the choruses than in the dialogue. 

The Attic, as we have said above, is a contracted kind 
of Ionic ; because the Ionians delighted in the dactylic or 
heroic measure, while the Attics were more partial to the 
iambic and trochaic. 

Ionic. Attic. 

ivuj-oow acw £> 

KaXieu) k<iAc5 

ojudcojuat vfxovixat 

Ipiaj IpbJ 

KOfXLdd) KOfXlU) 

hXacrcj cXai 

In these cases w_ Qpzw) is cut down into the v- (ejow)* 

But, when the antepenult is long by position, the Attics 

retain the Ionic form. So both Attics and Ionics say \°P' 

tcktu), aldiaofjLcu, &c. because it suits either the ^— , or -v, 



0r _^v 5 or VV,-^ 






Ionic. 




Attic. 


OTJJUClVtCt) 




GYifXaVOJ 


(paviio 




(pavit) 


-aaofxai 




-Co fiat 


-oaofxai 
KoXarjo/iai 
N. B. A short 


syllable precedes 


-ovfiac 
KoXw/^at 

these contractions, 


'Ldoj -iaofxai 


-i£) tovfiai 
ovslSlu) oveidtoiffxaL 


(ppovTiau) 




(ppOVTlU 

t t 



482 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

without reference to the preceding syllable, ag in x°P~ 

TCLGb). 

The Ionics discarded the augment — the Attics never, 
except in the case of \pr\v and l\pn v ^ which are used pro- 
miscuously. [See Porson's Preface to the Hecuba.] 

Old Attic. New Attic. 

/oor and era- pp and tt 

dapGOQ QpCKJOQ 

QaXaaaa OaXarra 

The New Attics disliked the 2. Hence Euripides is ri- 
diculed for his aiynaTianara, 

fc'SwSa 2\ £2 SaSiv 'EXX^vwv 6Soi. Med. 475. 
where the letter 2 is repeated seven times. Sophocles has 
a line where the letter T occurs eight times ; which is not 
remarked by Aristotle. Porson observes, that there is in 
Euripides a line more remarkable than the one just quoted. 
It is this : 

to Sw/xa SwSaS, tovS XoyouS 2w2«S I/xovS. 

Iph. Taur. 772. 

Here the S is repeated ten times. In Sophocles, 
wS raS aSA^aS rdSSe raS ep.a% X ^«S. (Ed. Rex. 1481. 
the letter occurs as often as in the passage given from the 
Medea. And so in GEd. Rex, 425. 

[N. B. nomen oryjtia indeclinabile est.] 

(2). The Doric became gradually refined to a degree of 
sweetness that no other dialect ever attained. [The Doric 
is to the Attic what the Scotch is to the English, — in songs, 
ballads, and the like.] The drama originated in the moun- 
tainous parts of Greece : hence a slight cast of the Doric 
remained in the choral odes,— only slight, when compared 
with Theocritus or Pindar ; [perhaps, confined entirely to 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 483 

the changing of rj into a, and this too only under certain 
conditions.] 

(3). The jEolic was carried over into Asia from Pelo- 
ponnesus : from whence it spread among some of the 
islanders off the Asiastic coast, particularly Lesbos. Hence 
used by Sappho and Alcseus. 

We learn that Homer was translated into different dia- 
lects. Hence has arisen the difficulty of accounting for his 
particular dialects, [all three remaining, in consequence, in 
some degree mixed,] 

From the JEolic sprung the Latin. Evander emigrated 
into Italy before the Trojan war, and transported thither 
the language of Arcadia (the iEolic), which, mixed with 
the original Tuscan, (something like the Celtic), formed the 
basis of the Latin language. 

The article was seldom, if ever, used by the earlier 
Greeks, as appears from Homer. [Yet avrap r O avQi 
Qvzot 'A. 8. (p. and several others in the passage about the 
sceptre.] Hence its disuse in the Latin language. 

One of the principal advantages which the Greek lan- 
guage has over the Latin is in the article ; 

6 yiyZjlibv GTpdTOV, 

riyzjULtov Grparovy 

6 riy^fithv tov arparov, 

rtyE/ui^v tov GTparov, 

the leader of an army, 

a leader of an army. 

the leader of the army, 

a leader of the army, 
all of which differ in meaning, but can only be represented 
in Latin by dux exercitus. 

The augment seems to have been seldom used by the 
earlier Greek writers, and therefore by those who wrote in 



484 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

the iEolic dialect ; the reduplication often. This is another 
proof of the two languages being akin to each other. The 
Latins have c^cidi, — ceoidi, — cwcurri, &c. Other charac- 
teristics are, 

JEtolic ri into a 
Doric tj into a 

Hence from vvfx<j)r) vvfKpa nympha, 
<prjp.ri (frafia fama. 

Our account of the JEolic dialect arises principally from 
certain of the ancient grammarians, who possessed accounts 
of them from writings lost to us. 

The JEolic is mostly destitute of aspirates : and the same 
is very nearly the case with the oldest Latin. 

The three labials, three palatals, and three dentals are 
easily commutable. And so in English : for mother, Chaucer 
wrote moder, and for murder, Shakspeare and other English 
authors, murtlier. 

Till the time of Simonides and Epicharmus, e and o were 
promiscuously used for tj and to ; for 0, rH ; for ^, *H ; for 
<j>, 7rH ; for £, k(t ; for £, $a ; and for \p, wa. 



Latin* 


Greek. 


ambo, 


ajUHJib) 


nebula, 


vt(j)£\ri 


alibi 


aX\o)(l 


guberno, 


KvfispVU) 


angulus, 


ayKvXov 


Deus, 


Oedg 


inde, 


svOev 


lateo, 


ZXaOov [\aO!u>] 


misceo, 


Efiioyov 


fremo, 


fipifJLO) 


triumphus, 


Oplafxfioc 


purpureus, 


7TOjO^V/0€0C« 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



485 



The retention of the F 


in the Latin, shows the traces 


of the iEolic in that language. In some degree it supplied 


the place of the 


aspirate. 


It is expressed in Latin by D, 


sometimes by S. 






Latin. 




uffloMc. 


sylva, 




KAF n 


sevum, 




CuFiUV 


avernus, 




aFopvog 


boves, 




&6Feg 


divus, 




SiFog 


video, 




Fldov 


viginti, 




FIkotl (old form) 


venter, 




FfiWe/ooe 


vestis, 




FlaOrjg 


vesper, 




F'icnrepog 


ver, 




(tap) Frjp 


vesta, 




Fiarla 
See Dr. Valpy's Greek Grammar. 


Other forms are deduced 


by interchange of consonants, &c. 


Latin. 




Greek. 


vulgus, 




oyXog [oyXog, oXyog, FoXyog] 


num, 




fXWV 


forma, 




fxop<t>rj 


lac, 




yaXa 


dulcis, 




yXvKvg 


tener, 




TEpTJV 


ab, 




awo 


sub, 




FviTO 


super, 




Fvrrep 


tunica, 




\IT0)V 


animus, 




avsfxog liearfs Hood.) 


mens, 




fjJvog (used in Homer for 



486 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



somnus, Fihtvoq 

veni, 7jv6ov (riXBov) 

quattuor, [cattuor, ut 
cottidie pro quotidie.] kettopsq, iEolic for TtaaapzQ. 



fallo, 


G(j)aX\(jj 


unus, 


tvog 


legunt, 


\iyovTi (XeyovGi) 


legimus, 


A£yojU£c 


sunt, 


/ * >f \ V 

(ovaiy eovTi) ovtl 


Principal changes are : 




Latin 


Greek 


terminations. 


terminations. 


us 


from oc 


um 


ov 


am 


av 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 4S£ 



Dialect of the Tragedians. 
From the German of C. G. Haupt : 



VORSCHULE ZUM STUDIUM DER GRIECHISCHEN TRAG1KKB. 



§ 1. IN THE DIALOGUE. 

As there are two leading elements in ancient tragedy, so 
there is a corresponding division in its dialect. The lan- 
guage of the lyrical portions is usually named the Doric. 
In the portion embracing the dialogue we should naturally 
expect to meet with the pure Attic dialect. Yet still we 
do not meet with the language of actual life, as it exists in 
Aristophanes ; nor, on the other hand, the language of the 
lyrical writers, but such as may rather be denominated the 
old Attic or the Epic language. 

As the tragedians borrowed from the ancient epic poets 
not merely their subject-matter, but also their mode of 
expression and representing objects ; hence they used in 
the dialogue, 1. many epic w^ords and forms of words, as, 
i£uvog, alet, jmovvog, Kuvog, OprJKeg, ixiaaog, roaaov, 7T/oo(t<tw, 
avng and civtz, £017, tpog, iroXirir^g, k. r. A. 2. Epic forms 
of inflection ; in the declensions, as 'idprig, yovvara, Sovpl 
and Sop}, datives in mat, rjvi, oiai, also Tomzg, tok/jojv, and 
resolutions, voov, evpoov, ev-irtTiog, pkOpov : — in the conjuga- 
tions, as, 7ro\zv/j.Evog, KTivaag, oXivaag, &c. 3. Epic quan- 
tities of words, aOavarog, aKafxarog, &c. Doric forms of 



488 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

words also occur : as ^AOava, Sapbg, cicari, Kvvayog, oiradbg, 
Saiog (unlucky, disastrous), v\v, vabg, concerning which we 
shall speak more definitely in the dialect of the choruses.* 

FORM OF THE PROPER ATTIC DIALECT. 

1. Prosody in a wider sense, (Breathing, Quantity, 
Accent). 

Instead of ayog most MSS. have ayog, as also in the 
compounds ayr)\aruv, ayy}\aZ,uv, &c. ; on the same ground 
Elmsley has erroneously written aOpoiZu and oXvcj. Con- 
cerning the Attic avvTw, instead of avvru), Porson (Phwniss. 
463,) and Hermann {Elect. 1443,) may be consulted. This 
word is Attic on account of the inserted r, as in apyrw. 
There is no doubt about the quantity of aAOw in the trage- 
dians ; in Homer the middle syllable is always short, except 
Odyss. ix. 398, tov jj.lv zttut eppi^ev awb to \zpa\v aXvujv. 
Concerning eXXog and 'AXoc, the reader may consult Lo- 
beck (Aj. 1284 ;) and Elmsley (CEd. Col. 1074,) concern- 
ing epBd) and epdu. [He prefers the former orthography.] 
In such words as these the spiritus asper appears to have 
proceeded from the grammarians ; for ancient and unadul- 
terated MSS. of the tragedians as well as of Thucydides, 
Xenophon, &c, confirm the lenis spiritus. The word 
epSsiv might form an exception. 

* " Mea sententia, ita se res habet. Nemo ignorat, multas esse 
voces, quas duas habeant formas ; unam communem, etiam a comicis 
usurpatam ; alteram poeticam, tragicorum propriam. Formae commu- 
nes, exempli gratia, sunt yovara, SovXsio?, IxzTvos, /u,Qvos, %'zvas, ovopx, wXg/wv, 
ipwr, X S ~S SS : P o eticse yovvara, SovXio;, xuvo?, fxovvos, §a~voj, ovvoju.*, wXewv, Qaot, 

xk*?' Formas poeticas satis multas in senariis usurpant tragici, sed ea 
lege, ut communis in eadem sede collocata metro adversetur." — Elmsley 
on Eur. Med. 88. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 489 

Porson, (on Orest. 64,) Erfurdt, (Aj. 1109,) and Her- 
mann concur in denying that in a trimeter a short vowel 
can be used long before a mute ante liquidam, if the short 
belongs to one word and the consonants to another. On 
the lengthening of a short vowel before j3X, 7X, y/z, yv, %f.i, 
Sv, see Porson on Hec. 298, Elmsl. Bacch. 1307, Herm. 
Antig. 296. 

Seidler (Eur. Electr. 1053,) has shown thaticX can make 
position, whilst Schneider and Wellauer (iEsch. Prom. 609,) 
maintain that a mute before a liquid can make position 
generally in the trimeter as in the anapaestic and lyrical 
portions. Thus, for instance, we have irapa Kkaiovai (Ale. 
558,) # and the short vowel perhaps every where long before 
yv. Others have limited the position to the case of a mute 
before p. That p can make the short syllable of the pre- 
ceding word in the arsis long, we may take as an example, 
fxiya paKog (iEsch. in Prom. 1023 ;) and though this in- 
stance recurs the most frequently, yet it is not the only one. 
The passages in which position is made by a mute before 
X are sufficiently numerous. The ancients doubled the 
single liquids pronuntlando, non scribendo (Heyne on Ho- 
mer). This law, which holds equally good for the Latin 
writers, is applied by the tragedians in the case of proper 
names : TtXevravrog, 'iTnrofi&ovTog. (Lobeck on Aj. 210.) 
The Homeric TrroXte, TrroXe/xoc, occurs also in the trage- 
dians, when the preceding short vowel must be made long. 

The a in koXoq, (pQavw, is short in the tragedians ; it is 
long in "A7noe, also in SaweSovf and yepa, (in the epic 
writers short.) Finally, apa instead of apa, which however 

* But Monk has edited : aiV^ov Se nct^a. kiAowi Qoiv&aQoii <plxois» 
f But see Porson, Orest. 324. 



490 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

Hermann denies (Prmf. ad (Ed. Col.) : M Ubi neque inter- 
rogationi neque exclamationi locus est, non est ferendum 
apa ; in aliis locis apa v. y apa in t apa (i. e. toi apa) 
mutandum ; ut in Hipp. 443, ubi videndus Monisms." 

The iota in Xiav is doubtful, as in avia, (Porson, Phoen. 
1374,) laaOai, la\rj, and their compounds. The iota in 
'laog, 00/vw, and rivw, is long in Homer, short in the trage- 
dians. The iota in the datives of r)p.ug and vp,ug is often 
short, at least in Sophocles — in which case vplv, fipXv, or 
r\fiiv, vfuv should be written. "With this we may compare 
vvv for vvv. Whether the iota in comparatives in iu*v is 
sometimes used short in the tragedians, (as would seem the 
case in r)(W, Eur. Suppl. 1104,) may be very much 
doubted. The long i in o0*e, 60ii>, Kovig, and kowv, is 
worthy of observation. [Blomf. iEsch. Prom. 1120.] The 
short v in daicpvu) in the present and imperfect, is doubtful, 
(see Porson on Med. 1218 ;) but less uncertain in vr\&vv. 
(Eur. Androm. 356, Cycl. 571.) It is usual to shorten 
the diphthongs of one and the same word before vowels in 
7roiuv, ToiovTog, SdXaiog, ytpatbg, olog (when the last syl- 
lable is long), TraXcuoe, k. t. X. [Porson, Ph. 1319.] 

2. Letters — Consonants — Vowels. The attempt to fasten 
on the tragedians whatever is of a pure Attic character, or 
approximates to it, has given rise to many alterations of 
the original text, as well as many controversies among the 
learned. Concerning 7rvevf.uov and TrXEvfiiov, Kvairrio and 
yvaiTTO), Z,vv and aw, jutoXig and fioyig, tig and Ig, Trpaaoii) 
and TrpaTTU), Oapvio and Oappu), yiyvcjcnca) and yivwcrKU), 
tXicreu) and slXlcrorto, airXaKuv and afnrXaKuv, our decision 
can be regulated only by the authority of Mss., and must 
rest on surer grounds than the preconceived notion, that 
whatever is pure Attic must at the same time be also 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 491 

tragic. With respect to such forms (for instance juoyic, 
yva^inruv) as have been considered of a more Attic charac- 
ter — a more accurate observation of Plato, Thucydides, 
Xenophon, and other contemporary writers has proved 
quite the reverse. 

Porson and Elmsley have been equally erroneous in uni- 
versally writing aerbg, kcuo and k\6.u) : Hermann's Preface 
to Ajax, p. 18. " Falli puto, qui, quod icaav, kXclhv, aerog 
Attica esse accepimus, continuo tragicis hsec obtrudenda 
esse existimant." The same writer defends ndOov against 
the Atticizing wiOov, (Mectra, 1003.) as others do fiiKpdg 
against crfiiKpog, &c. With respect to the Diaeresis, we must 
observe IXeuvog and at'o-o-w, for which we usually have IXuvbg 
and aicrGw ; other words appear almost always contracted, 
as olZvg. Elmsley writes Trota instead of 7roa ; so also poia, 
GToia, Xi° ot «? though not 7rvom, but irvod. In reference to 
tcXsioj (kX^w), icXdOpov (KXrjOpov), and all their derivatives, 
the researches of Poppo would lead us to adopt the rj gene- 
rally, especially in the fluctuating KEKXeifievog (which in 
other passages is also written kekA^usvoc) and iKXdeOrjg. 
The omission of the v in o-^iv, irpoaOtv, inrepBev, &c, is 
doubted by Elmsley (Med. 393.) ; but see Matth. (Androm. 
p. 131. Add.) 

S. Substantives. Along with (dcKJiXug (Nom. and Ace.) 
we have jdamXrjg, IwiFtjg ; also the Doric vaoe, Ionic vt]6g, 
with noXetvg and ttoAeoc, aareojg and aareog ; ' AnoXXuva 
and 'ATroXXuj^'Ap^v/Apr} and"AjO£a (thus "Apeog) ; yovvara, 
according to Porson also yovva ; Sopbg, dop\ ; to Kpara with 
rbv KpaTct, Gen. upardg. PI. Kparwv. On the tragic dative 
Sopei, see Herm. Aj. 1035. On the vocative Oldiirovg, 
Elmsl. (Ed. C. 557. The accusative of words in evg is rj 
and la ; in the latter form we have sometimes the short a 



492 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

in (povEvg, KZGTpzvg, and some proper names. (Porson, 
Hec. 876.) The vocative of words in ig varies in the Mss., 
NifjLEcnQ and Repeat, Porson, Ph. 187. The Mss. also fluc- 
tuate in Heteroclite and Heterogeneous nouns, between 
ir\avr\ and irXavog, Secrfiol and deapct, ol yvat and al yviai, 
7r\evpai and wXevpa. It is certain that o\oig y o^ouc, oaatov, 
oggolq occur only in this form, and to \P smv oiuv as inde- 
clinable. 

4. Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns. In reference to adjec- 
tives, those require the most particular attention which we 
meet with as common although they have three termina- 
tions. This is the case however with some in the ordinary 
language. We remark 17 areppog, r\ opfyavhg, 77 yevvcuog, 17 
BiKmog, eXevOepbg, OriXvg, fiaralog, <j)av\og, p.i\eog, j3pv\iog f 
(TKonog, the latter only in the chorus, (Ale. 125.) others 
more in the chorus than the dialogue, aXiog, TraTpqog, and 
the remarkable rriXiKovrog. Concerning adjectives in ag, a%, 
r]p, up, &c, as well as compound adjectives with a feminine 
form, Lobeck may be consulted. (Aj. v. 175. 323.) Many 
of the adjectives in toe, uog, oiog, compounded with the priva- 
tive a, have already the feminine form in the ordinary prose. 
In the termination of verbal adjectives, the Mss. often fluc- 
tuate between Tog and arog, for instance, a^afiavTog and 
adaparog, ctfcXauroc and aKkavarog, yvtorbg and yvtoardg, 
Oejuarbg and OtfiioTog, &c. The decision is very difficult 
when nothing can be determined from the metre, or the 
preponderating number of Mss. 

Among the forms of comparison we remark the compa- 
rative T)<jvytoTepog, and the superlatives $i\i<jTog, irpootoTa- 
rog, ayyiaTog, the adverbs ^ui/rojuwrarwe, ttclvvotcltov and 
iravvarara. In reference to the termination of adverbs 
fluctuating between ci and t, as apo%0d and afjto\0h see 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 493 

Blomf. on Prom. 216. Among numeral words Suo, Suo>, 
Svuv and SvoTv are in use. Elms. Med. 1250. Of pronouns 
we adduce rjarivoc, $nvi, Wev, aidtv (Ale. 52. 206.), viv and 
afe Ace. sing, and plur. a$i as dat. sing, (ei) Herm. GEd. 
0. 1487. 

5. Verls. If we have already found it difficult to dis- 
tinguish with accuracy those irregular, or particularly fre- 
quent forms of inflection, which occur in the dialogue-por- 
tions of the tragedians, from those which are partly confined 
in some measure to the choruses, and are partly to be met 
with in other Attic writers ; — the task now becomes alto- 
gether impracticable. We shall therefore content ourselves 
with collecting remarkable forms without every where indi- 
cating whether they occur in other places, or whether they 
merely occur in the lyrical portions. 

a. Augment. In the Attic language the use of the aug- 
ment is regular in the historical tenses. The epic poets 
frequently omit it. This is done even by the tragedians in 
the lyrical portions. [See Monk. Ale 599.] But the opi- 
nions of learned men are very various as to how far this 
liberty of omission extends in the dialogue. According to 
Beidler the omission of the syllabic augment in the dialogue 
is confined to the narrations of messengers, which, being 
composed at first after the similitude of Epic poetry, obtained 
the same license. But Reisig (Conject. in Aristojpli. lib. i. 
p. 78, 79.) limits it still further : " ubi res magna qusedam 
et gravis aut admirabilis vel nova narratur ; quse et vocis 
intentione et gestuum motu auditorum animis inculcetur." 
Others banish entirely the omission of the augment, consi- 
dering the passages where it occurs, partly as corrupt, and 
partly as having received a crasis. The crasis is particularly 
urged by Elmsley, who distinguishes three cases where the 



494 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

omission of the augment occurs: 1. in commissura duorum 
versuum, ubi per crasin tollitur : ISoph. Elect. 714. aw — 
9 <f>optiO\ 2. in quibus sine metri dispendio addi augmen- 
tum potest : Pers. 375. rpoirovTo, 487. kvkXovvto. 3. quae 
neutra ratione augmentum admittunt, corrupta sunt. Pers, 
313. £K fxtag iriaov. Ant. 403. *ldov (Idtov). 

The principles which Hermann lays down for the omis- 
sion of the augment are somewhat different ; but, as they 
are contradicted by internal evidence, and, at the same 
time, leave many passages (where the augment is omitted) 
without illustration — we shall forbear stating them. The 
tragedians are rather guided in the omission of the augment, 
partly by the authority of the Epic poets, partly by an 
unconscious sentiment, partly by the necessity of the metre ; 
and it would therefore be difficult to find out and prove any 
fixed laws by which they might be guided. 

The temporal augment must be considered separately, as 
even the Attic prose writers regularly omit it in many 
words : for instance in zvpfoKuv, and in very many words 
beginning with ev. For as the r\ did not exist in the ancient 
mode of writing, so nv appears to have arisen first in the 
new Attic dialect, being retained by later writers, and sub- 
stituted by grammarians and transcribers for the proper e v. 
Yet here we must be careful to distinguish the words not 
compounded with the particle tu, or at least consisting of 
the particle sv, 'and a derived verb commencing with a con- 
sonant (vuxzaQai, zvvaZt(jQai, and of the second species 
ivrpsiriZuv, zvtvxzlv,) from those verbs compounded with 
ev, particularly with a vowel immediately preceding. 

Many of the verbs of the first sort have the augment 
more frequently than they omit it; for instance tvypiiai, 
Soph Track 610. nvywv, (166.) Karr^e™, (Antig. 1336.) 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 495 

lirrivZafjLriv, (Eur. Hec. 540.) ^v^dfxnv, Elmsl. Heracl. 305. 
In like manner some verbs beginning with ol have seldom or 
never the augment, even not in pure prose, for instance, oivow, 
olxojucu. According to Hermann, the augment is only ex- 
hibited by those verbs in 01, which are of seldom occurrence. 
Of the verbs which commence with u (for instance EiKa£&>) 
neither this nor any other has the augment in the Mss. of 
the tragedians with regularity and certainty ; nor even in 
Thucydides. (Poppo de Elocut. p. 236.) 

It is an erroneous opinion, that the tragedians omitted 
the temporal augment on account of the metre (Hermann 
Jph, T. 53, vdpaivov). We, however, remark particularly 
that the augment is wanting in xP% v -> &v<*>y<*, Ka6zZ6fjir}v, 
KaOii/xriv. KaQtvdov. From avaXiGizu) we have avaXwaa 
more frequently than avrjXwcra ; the latter form is seldom to 
be met with in the prose writers. From avixofiai we have 
i)ve<yxofJLi]v, r)vex6fj.r]v and av£\6firiv ; lfiov\6firiv is more fre- 
quent than i)fBov\6fii]v. Finally we remark IZtpvaapriv, 

h. Persons. The Dual, as is the case with the Epic poets, 
fluctuates in the historical tenses between nv and ov. % 
Elmsley denies that the first person of the dual in the pas- 
sive in tOov is in use. The second person of the present 
and fut. pass, and middle fluctuates still more between u 
and tj. Except 6\pei, ola and j3ovXa, which regularly re- 
tain £*, the termination y in many passages of the tragedians 
is certain according to the Mss. But tj and u in the Mss. 
are so frequently commuted in cases, where the error is evi- 
dent, that we must be careful not to follow them implicitly 
in this matter. Plato, Thucydides, &c. have mostly the 

* " Secundam personam dualem a tertia diversam non fuisse primus, ; 
m fallor, monui ad Aristoph, Ach, 733,"—Elmsl. Med. 1041. 



496 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

form in u. The opinions of the learned therefore differ 
greatly upon the subject. The first person plural often ter- 
minates in zaOa instead of zOa. Concerning the v paragogic 
at the end of the Senarius, consult Reisig. (Prcef. ad Comm. 
in (Ed. Col. xxiv.) 

c. Tenses. Present. Concerning the present tenses in 
Ostv (tsXWuv, ptvvQuv*) Hermann may be consulted ((Ed. 
Col. 1019.) ; and concerning ptirruv and piirTuv (jactare 
and jacere) the same writer may be consulted. (Aj. 235.) f 
Along with the Attic lx^o.ipuv we have also £x^P aivtLV f wu ^ n 
la\aiv£iv also loxyaivtiv, with ^wnpiTtiv also ^vvr^perfxtiv, 
with olx^oOat also oiyyzlv, with XavOavu) also A??0w, with 
7T£TOjuat also iroraopm, (not ( i7TTapai), &c. The imperatives 
have the Attic form in the last pers. PI. Prses. Pass, and 
Mid. : cKpmpdaOwv ; the same in the active yeXwvrwv. The 
form in wcmv is denied : v. Elmsley. (Seidl. Iph. T. 1480.) 

Future. We may remark wQfob) instead of w<ro) ; from 
epXP/uLai, zXzvaofjiai ; further from aelpw, or alpu), the future 
aipw. We have the Attic future GKeda (Prom. 25.) ; 7reX^ 
( (Ed. Col. 1060.), but also KaXiaio, &c. The Attic futures 
in ovfxtOa proceed generally from the transcribers, as <j>zv%- 
oujue^a, for which Porson writes (psv^ofxeaOa (Or. 1610.) ; 
so irtvaovfjizQa, ibid. 1362. Concerning al vw, apKio, &c. 
see Brunck ((Ed. It. 138. 232). 

Perfect: eouca, ioiyp.Ev, zijiqai ; apapa, Porson, Or. 1323. 
and the aorist apapov in lyric verse (Herm. on Soph, El. 
144.) The Ionic perfect oiruira occurs, Antig. 1127. ; otSa 
plusquam-perf. $077, but more commonly ySuv, plur. 5<tytev, 



• Elmsley writes TEXsQsrv, pivvQiTv, &c. considering them as aorists ; 
Med. 187. Hermann dissents from him, producing the pres. twMowi 
from (Ed. C. 692. 

f On w/wiy and mm~* t see Elmsl, Heracl. 150* 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



497 



Aorist. We may remark : una, eirura, nwym ; the opta- 
tive in aig, at along with the Attic : iruaaig and irdauag ; 
in the passive and middle \vTn)Qup.i.v, ahHraiaro, as also 
wvBoicito in Aor. 2. ; the infinitive middle ripaaOat, irraaQai 
and Tt\i]<jaaQai ; and the participles iri'ivag from iraax^-> [a 
doubtful reading for irTaiaag, in iEsch. Ag. 1637.] Ktag and 
Kf/avrfc from kcu'w. As the tragedians have generally a fond- 
ness for ancient and full-sounding forms, they generally 
prefer the Aor. 1 . pass, to the otherwise more ordinary 
Aor. 2. Still we meet with cnniX\dyr)v, iZvyriv, Kpvfiug, 
pi<l>ivT£g, &c. [<tt£/o£vtec;, Hec. 621.] Besides, we have to 
remark the aor. 1, IdwaaO^v. In reference to the aor. 2, 
act. pass, and mid. we cite also zttltvov, 'Iktv-kov, &c. As 
pilfxara avOviroTaKTa, we may cite iropuv, hpkadai, and their 
compounds. Concerning other poetical aorists, as 'ippvro, 
apapwv, airacpuv, (see Buttm. 385, Obs. 7.) 

Verbs in p.i. Whether the contracted form in the present 
is to be met with in the tragedians, is a matter of contro- 
versy. Brunck has admitted it in many passages. Accord- 
ing to the canon of Porson, Or. 141, hWu may be allowed 
in the imperfect, but not tlOu in the present, for which 
riOrim always occurs. Others approve of the contracted 
forms in the imperfect and present, where the MSS. have 
them ; and from hyu they write the present lug, let, the 
imperfect 'lug, ht. Of the verbs in vfxi there is even the 
first person present in vu), together with the participle in 
viov ; although Porson maintains that this first took place 
in the newer comedy. The first person of the imperfect of 
upX appears to have been generally r\, (thus also Trapr\, 
&c.) ; yet r\v is found before a vowel (where even rj could 
not be read if the passages were corrupt,) four times in 
Euripides and three times in Aristophanes, (see Herm, 



498 



T«E GRECIAN DRAMA. 



CEd. R. ed. ri.' xii.) Concerning tfilv, %<ficl; iaazTai, see the 
interpreters on J^sch. Pers. 96, 614, Soph. El. 21, 818. 
We also retiiark toravat, tarwc, tartjlw, and the impera- 
tives tWel, TrifXTtpK], %t)\ ava, "igtclgo, also torw, !tu)v. 

6. Grammatical Figures. By these we understand poetical 
liberties in the addition, or omission, or transposition of 
single letters and syllables, arid particularly the freer use of 
the apostrophe in the dialogue-portions of the Greek tragedy 
as well as the lyrical. 

Crasis. This figure is of very frequent and extensive use 
with the tragedians, particularly in the Articulus propositi- 
vus and post-positivus, in k<A and other particles. How it 
should be written in all cases, the learned are not agreed. 
Synecphonesis, is of no less frequent occurrence ; for in- 
stance, in tyw ov, lyw dpi, rj ov, fVft ov, fir) ov, pr) ddivat, 
fir) wpaim. &c. mostly in the dialogue. 

Synizesis occurs for the most part only in the lyric por- 
tions ; for instance, £0 in 0f6c, vo in vwvog, vw in 'Epivvviov, 
&c. 

Elision (Apostrophe) does not take place (1) in ri, ir£p\, 
mil (2) nor in the dative singular and plural of the third 
declension according to the usual opinion ; see Hermann, 
however, on Alcest. 1123, (3) nor in the termination m, 
except in the passive terminations, fiat, cat, tat, oQai : 
(4) usually only in oipoi before an w, but not in, pot oot. 
Single exceptions however occur. Whether roi can suffer 
elision, see Buttmann (Gram. p. 124,) and Thiersch (Gr. p. 
426.)* 

Aphwresis is usual in kAXw (instead of okAXw,) and in 

* " ovr apx est cvToiapa, dipthongo ot, quae elidi non potest, cum 
brevi vocali crasin efficiente : quod perssepe fit in' Atticis poetis, prae- 
settim in rot apx et roi «y." Momtk Hipp. 443* 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 499 

odvpojuat and WiXto, if 0eXw and ^vpofxat are not distinct 
verbs. Syncope, in orr£ui>rat, (Pers. 50,) lirayyiaaa, (Agam. 
147,) a^jS/jcrr?, (Ear. Hec. 1263,^ Karflavtiv, mcjuevo?, (see 
Biittmann on Philoct. 494.). Apocope, Kpza, (Eurip. Cycl. 
126,) with a short a instead of Kpiara ; ai>a instead of av£$ 
and avaarqdc, /xa and j3a only in the lyric portions, nap, 
iEsch. Suppl. 556. 

Diceresis occurs in otu), evJ»&, aiMl and is particularly 
frequent in anapaests. Tmesis in t/7T£p — arivtj, and in other 
verbs compounded with prepositions. Thus lv §1 KArJtrrirf. 
Epenthesis in i]Xv6ov, kzlvov for kevov, ay and tlvaXiog for 
f y, IvaA., yovva, &c. Diplasiasmus in aSS^v, and adjectives 
in croc, for which o-c-oe, fxicraog. Metathesis in Kajortoroe, 
a5paKoi>. Paragoge in the poetic forms, Ivt, Stat. 



§ 2.— -IN THE CHORUS. 

Though lyric poetry chiefly employed for its purposes the 
Doric dialect, and belonged in general to the Doric tribes ; 
yet many lyrical writers employed it with great freedom, 
and exhibited a particular attachment for the epic forms. 
The Doric dialect appears the most limited in the choruses 
or the impassioned speeches of the Greek tragedy. In these 
the Doric expression extends chiefly to the use of a instead 
of 17, and to some forms ; vlv, OldnroSa for Ol^tirodov ; and 
we no where meet with Xiyofieg, r^vOev, fXEXiardifiev, Mwo-a 
or Motcra, infinitive in ev and ijv, accusative plural in wg 
and oc, &c. 

Some Doricisms were generally common to the ancient 
language, and are to be met with in the more ancient 
prose- writers and in tragic dialogue : dapbg, kmfioXog, 



500 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



wart, Xoxayog, &c. ; and others existed already in the epic 
language : SdirtSov, Ocucog. Besides these we also remark 
in the choruses the following Doric forms : MzveXag, gen. 
MevlXa, dat. MeveXa. Thus 'AiSa, UeXia ; the genitive 
Alatcicav, Qr\pav, ravds yvvaiKxtv, (see Porson, however, 
Hec. 1061 ;) accusative, lvkXecl ; the vocative with the 
apocope : pa. instead of paTtp, and j3a instead of fiaaiktv, 
(JEsch. Suppl), Id for yrj, (Prom. 567 ;) further, vag, 
vabg, vat and vaeg, paaawv instead of paiZwv, wotX instead 
of irpog, even in the Senarius. Finally, ava. with a dative 
instead of avv, iv for tig. In verbs : uaotxvvuoiv, ypvevaai, 
avTtvv. 

As /Eolic forms in the choral odes, we may cite ir^apmog 
for fAETCLpaiog, TreSaojoot for ptriupoi, TreSaixfAioi for piTai^- 
pioi ; (see Blomf. Prom. 277,) yvofyzpbg for Svocpzpbg, hacpzv 
for Ira^aav, ayvpig for ayopa, &c. Many are at the same 
time epic, as apbg for lp.bg, not for -qptrtpog, as in Homer. 
Other forms in the lyric portions are Epic or Ionic, parti- 
cularly those with the double c, as toggov, oXzacrag, KTiaaag, 
and the datives, pspoirtGGi, fiap'idtGGi, &c. ; to which we 
may add the resolved forms, as 'HpajcXtr/c, aSzXfytog, p&Opov, 
vfipeog, tvpu, Nrjps'oe, TraOea, j3peraov. Here we may cite 
also eovaa, kcu Ik for Kcnr\ kcu clkovtigtoi, l\zzivog, irereEivbg, 
aeitcrig, as well as <j>a£vvog, which others consider lyric. We 
have Ncjofje, Iphig. A. 1061, and j3a<nA?fc, Phcen. 857. 
Finally, among the epic forms of inflection, we have still to 
notice the genitive in oto instead of ov ; the dative in aiGi, 
yat, and oigl ; also vr\ag, hp% 'OtWcn/, and others already 
mentioned. We have also kbg and rsog ; 7rXea, ttXwv ; 7roX- 
Xoi/, 7roX(a, ttoXzgl' 7toXeojv ; p\v, GtOev, Wtv, &c. 

Form of conjugation: Opsvpat, rjXvOov, eVeo, hWcu, 
£<tk£, Ipiv. Epic words, as vfe, ipwrig, (see Burgess Eum, 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 501 

228. 403.) oaaoi, Ozaiva, Xrjpa. Attic forms — Xcwc with 
Xabg, yzXujv with yiXwra ; ''Opvig for opviOag, ar}($ovg, o\xk- 
pvai with SaKpvoLQ, ^owroc with ^podg, irXewg with irXeog, 
fxeiZii), fiovKEpu), orw, orov, yvb)piolp.i, GjjLiKpbg with 
fiiKpog. 

Prosody. We meet with ctzXiog (a), <Wjp with the long 
a :* (j)apog pi. fyapr) for $aooe ; but it is to be met with in 
the tragedians as well as in Homer with the long a ; also 
(poiraXiog [Orest. 321.] ; aiaou with the short a ; in Homer 
it is always long ; a'/'w has the a doubtful in the tragedians. 
[Hec. 170. 174.] Again, we have ap.bg and apbg ; iript 
with the long and short i ; and the quantity of the v vary- 
ing in vaSec, vSaroc, clitvwv, aXuw, &c. ; also xpvGtog with 
the short v. [Elmsl. Med. 633.] Brunck on Orestes (201.) 
says, " tertia in 'Ayapipvwv corripi potest in Melicis;" 
and concerning irorpog with the first syllable long we refer 
to Seidler (de Vers. Doch. p. 106.) Concerning the length- 
ening and shortening of syllables by the insertion and re- 
duplication or removal of letters, Hermann may be con- 
sulted, Metr. p. 45. As an instance of such a lengthening 
we may cite kXeSepvag (Sept. Theb. 83.), and of shortening 
XpvcropvTog for \puaopp. Soph. Antig. 940. 

Greater freedom prevails in the chorus than in the sena- 
rius with respect to the shortening of diphthongs and long 
vowels ; for instance, we meet with it even in KpvQaiog, Ike- 
ratoc, olog (even when the last syllable remains short), vaUi, 
$aib)v, Sc iXai(i)v, aliv, and before the vowel of another word, 
KaSuou £7twvujuov, at, at, &c. The long vowel is shortened 
in 'Apijiuv, t'Xaoc, suvir]/it, Tptj'tKtJV, Tpioa^og, iraTpujog, 
&c. and in separate words ; lv voacj tv^paiczg. 

The noun and the adjective. There prevails a still greater 
♦ See Scholef. on Phcen. 1670. 



502 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



freedom in lyrical passages with respect to the feminine 
form of compound adjectives. Thus we have the old poeti- 
cal forms aOava.Tr], aravpwTri, TroAufcAaurrj, aKGjuari), ^lAo- 
%jtvr\ % &c. See Elmsl. and Pors. Med. 822. Nouns appel- 
lative are sometimes used adjectively, as 'EXXaSog oroXrjg. 
Feminine adjectives are sometimes used as masculine, as 
rig 'EAAac, rj rig fiapfiapog (Eur. Phcen. 1524.) ; even 
as neuter, dpo^acn fiXefyapoig (Eur. Or. 835.) ; even in the 
nominative and accusative, GKafyog bXnag (Eur. Cycl. 503). 

Here we may also cite the following remarkable passages : 
Spofiadtg $>pvytg (Eur. Or. 1415.) and SpofiaSi kwAw (Hel. 
1317.) — lv Travel GMjuaTt (Eur. El. 372. in Senar.) ; also in 
Sophocles, a/itynrXriyi fyaaydvq (Trach. 932.) The adjec- 
tives, which are generally connected only with substantives 
of the masculine gender, are to be met with in the trage- 
dians also in feminines and neuters : Rhes. 550. wai^oXlriop 
andqvlg, Or. 1305. rav XenroiraTopa, Phceniss. 681. irpojid- 
ropog 'love? Here. Fur. 114. TtKta airaropa. Of adjec- 
tives in rje, rjroc, we adduce the following examples : av<$- 
poKfxr)g Xoiybg, (iEsch. Suppl. 681.) and in Senar. Trjg irar- 
po(j)6vTov fxrirpbg (Soph. Trach. 1127.) With respect to 
inflection, we may also notice u> fiaicap wap9h>z (Hel. 381.) 
and Tv^ag fiaxapog, (Iph. T. 616.) nvoal vfjari^sg, (Again. 
201.) SovaKOxAoa Eiipwrav, (Iph. T. 400.) eicrjfioXyai x*P aiv 
(Ion 213.) In the lyrical portions, the tragedians take 
very great liberty in using adjectives as common which have 
only a feminine form. We also remark the adjectives in ouc, 
ovoaa, ovv, particularly in the feminine irTspovaGa, alOa- 
Xovaaa, and a SecrTriiireta Trirpa, (CEd. T. 463.) iroXv^iv- 
SpsvGL OaXapaig (Bacch. 560.) 

Poetical adjectives of rare occurrence, or a somewhat dif- 
ferent inflection of the ordinary ones, are frequently resorted 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 503 

to by the tragedians in lyrical passages. We merely cite 
in this place the vocative of fxiyag in iEsch. (Sept. Theb. 
824.) jusyaXe Ztu, and the poetical form of adjectives in rjg ; 
for instance, rdXjLirjg, apyag (Doric for apyyg, Agam. 116.); 
or in t/c and ag for pc, as 7ro\qjiapxaQ (Sept. Theb. 791.) 
The freedom and the boldness of iEschylus in the forma- 
tion of new adjectives and verbs, has been illustrated by 
numerous examples in the annotations of the critics. 

The juxtaposition of adjectives and substantives, as vazg 
avazg (Pers. 677.), jusyaXa juizyaXriyoptov, (Sept. Theb. 539.) 
&c, is worthy of notice. Among the forms of comparison 
we also remark peXrspog, j3Araroc, in iEsch. ; /jwcporepog, 
7r\iovg, in Sophocles. 

Pronouns : ujujus in Soph. Antig. 846. ; viv belongs ex- 
clusively to the tragedians. The reflective pronoun ou, ou 
&c. stands as a pronoun of the third person for avrog in all 
the three genders ; o<pL as dative sing, and o-^e as accusa- 
tive sing, and plur. of all genders occurs in Senarii : afc for 
eavTov. (iEsch. Sept. Theb, 615.) Tebg, teti, tzov, generally 
only in choruses : Soph. Antig. 604. Eur. Heracl. 914. 
s Ov for ibv — twv and wy. Totcrt from r\g in Soph. Trach. 
984. 



CHAPTER IX. 



EXAMINATION PAPERS. 

1. Define your notion of epic, lyric, and dramatic poetry ? 
What species of composition is implied in the term lyrical 
tragedy \ Mention the various meanings that have been 
derived from the etymology of the words rpaycj^ia and 
TpvyujSia I Which of these explanations is most conforma- 
ble to analogy ? 

2. On what grounds, according to Aristotle, did the 
Dorians lay claim to the invention of tragedy and comedy ? 
Point out .the fallacy of the argument he mentions? In 
what Greek cities out of Attica were early advances made 
towards dramatic poetry I Where was any of its branches 
brought to its perfection earlier than at Athens ? Explain 
the proverb ovBe ra ^Trjai^opov rpia yiyvtoaKuq \ Mention 
the age, country, and inventions of Stesichorus, and the 
character of his poetry as described by the ancients l 

3. Relate the principal Attic legends concerning the in- 
troduction of the worship of Bacchus into Athens ? How 
did the oracles contribute to this end ? By what means 
does the worship of Bacchus appear to have become con- 
nected with that of Apollo at Delphi, and with that of 
Ceres at Eleusis \ 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 505 

4. Enumerate the Attic Dionysia, and explain the origin 
of their particular names. In what Attic month, and at 
what season of the year, was each celebrated ? To what 
division of the Greek nation did the month Len^eon belong ? 
To what Attic month did it correspond ? What is the 
origin of the name, and what inference may be drawn from 
it as to the place of the month in the calendar I Which 
was the most ancient of the Dionysia at Athens I 

5. At which of the Dionysia were dramatic entertain- 
ments given? In which were the dithyrambic choruses 
exhibited ? What were the peculiar regulations affecting 
the performances at each festival l In which were the 
rpaywdol Kctivol I What authority is there for believing, 
that women were admitted to these spectacles ? 

6. What were the denominations of the three actors, 
and what was the general name for the other characters in 
a play ! 

7. Give some examples to illustrate the different light in 
which actors were regarded by the Greeks and by the 
Romans. How is the fact to be explained ? From what 
causes did the profession of an actor rise in importance in 
Greece, between the age of iEschylus and that of Demos- 
thenes ? 

8. What part of the expense of the theatrical entertain- 
ments was defrayed by the Athenian government, and what 
by individuals \ Mention the various duties and charges 
to which the yop^oi were subject. With what powers did 
the law invest them in the execution of their office \ Ex- 
plain the origin and nature of the OzwpiKov ; the changes 
that took place in the distribution of it, and its political 
consequences. Who were the dtarpuvai and Oearpo- 



506 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

9. Mention the various ways in which Gfreek tragedy 
was made to answer political purposes, and produce some 
illustrations from the extant plays. Ey what tragedian 
was the drama most frequently so applied ? What argu- 
ments beside that of the Persse were taken from events 
subsequent to the return of the Heracleids I How do you 
explain the saying attributed to iEschylus : rag avrov Tpa- 
ycpo'iag re^a^i] uvai tCjv 'Ofirjpov fieyaXwv Sriirvijjy % 

10. State the best attested dates of the birth and death 
of iEschylus. Enumerate his dramatic predecessors and 
contemporaries in the order of time. Mention the leading 
occurrences in his life, the honours paid to him after his 
death, the members of his family whose names are known, 
and the causes of their celebrity. Do his plays contain 
any intimation as to his political sentiments? What 
grounds have been assigned for the charge of impiety, said 
to have been brought against him I What reason is there 
for believing that he made more than one journey to Sicily? 
When did Hiero become king of Syracuse, and how long 
did his reign last ? 

1 1 . What were the plays that made up the tetralogy to 
which the Persse belonged ? State the principal features of 
the legends connected with their names I What ground is 
there for supposing that the trilogy had a common title I 
In what manner may the argument of the Persse have been 
connected with those of the other two pieces ? What other 
poets wrote plays of the same name I 

12. Define and exemplify the metrical terms, arsis, thesis, 
basis, anacrusis, anaclasis, cwsura, prosodia. What is 
meant by metres, ko.t avrnraOuav fiiKTal What is an 
asynartetic verse I 

13. In what cases are adverbs of time properly followed 



THE GRECIAN DKAMA. 507 

by the indicative, in what by the subjunctive or the optative 
mood \ When is the subjunctive, and when the optativ 
required after a relative pronoun or adverb J Distinguish 
the different meanings of the following words, according to 
the difference of their accentuation : ayrj, /3ioc, j3|Ooroc, 
yavXog, Srjjitoe, Oepfiiog, OoXog, KaXog, tct)p, Ai?vo£, \ig, vuog, 
vofxog, rpoirog. 

14. Grive the dates of the birth, and death, and first 
tragic victory of Sophocles. In what war was he engaged I 
What was its duration and event \ 

15. How long after the death of Sophocles and Euripides, 
did Aristophanes produce his Ranse \ 

16. How far does Phrynichus appear to deserve the title 
of father of tragedy I Why was a fine imposed upon him 
for his Mi\i)rov aXwmg 1 Where is the story related \ 
What characters did he introduce \ 

Vl. What do you consider to be the object of epic and 
dramatic poetry I What the chief characteristic of Grecian 
tragedy \ 

18. How was the drama encouraged at Athens? 

19. What is the controversy respecting the Lensea? 

20. What was the nature of the laws irepl twv QtwpiKuv I 
When introduced, and with what object 1 How does De- 
mosthenes allude to them I 

21. Explain the terms ccesura, quasi-cwsura, and j^anse, 
in the iambic trimeter of the tragedians I 

22. What proofs do we possess of the existence of a 
rpayw^ia and KOjfiqSia in Greece, independent of the Attic 
stage? Mention the different derivations of the word 
rpcr/wSta, and explain the objections to which Bentley's is 
liable. 

23. What is the meaning of j3o??X4r»?e diBvpajji^og in 



508 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



Pindar? What was the prize in the dithyramb ic contests I 
In what sense might Arion be said TpayiKov rpoVou evpzrrig 
yiveaOai I State the principal objections to Bentley's as- 
sertion, that all the plays of Thespis were ludicrous, and 
that none of them were committed to writing. 

24. Mention the most material points in which the con- 
struction of a Greek, and that of a Roman theatre differed. 
Distinguish between byfiGTpa and orchestra, irpoXoyoc and 
proloc/us, £%6Siov and exodium. What is meant by protasis 
and persona protatica on the Roman stage I What in- 
stances of the latter occur in Euripides I 

25. Explain the cause of the Doric dialect being used in 
the choruses of the Attic drama, and produce some parallel 
instances. How did the Doric dialect of the tragedians 
differ from that of Pindar ? 

26. What are the characters attributed by the ancients 
to the following apfioviai : rj AwjOiort, r\ 'Iaorrt, 17 AloXtari, 
■i) typvyiaTi ? 

27. Give a scheme and specimen of the Catullian Galliam- 
bic. How does it differ from the Saturnian of Nsevius \ 

28. What is the difference between iraTpios, iraTpwog y 
irarpiKoq % between S&oikci fir) QtXtig, and $£<$oiko. fir) OiXyg I 
between fir) OiXwv and fit) ov OeXwv \ between irp\v iroitlv, 
irplv iroiriaai, and ~p\v imroirrKivai \ 

29. In what species of songs did comedy and tragedy re- 
spectively originate ? Does there appear to have been any 
essential difference between tragedy and comedy before the 
time of Thespis I What was the nature of the ancient 
comedy, and to what kind of subjects do the plays of Epi- 
charmus appear to have related ? What was the distinc- 
tion between the old, the middle, and the new comedy ? 
To which class does that of Aristophanes belong \ 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 509 

•30. What was the metre of the satyric songs according 
to Aristotle ? Does the same measure prevail in that 
satyric drama which has come down to us? 

31. Mention the several changes which tragedy under- 
went, and the different persons by whom the successive 
improvements were introduced. 

32. In what estimation was iEschylus held by the Athe- 
nians I Was any encouragement given to those who after 
his death reproduced his dramas ? Were they ever allowed 
to be brought forward at the tragic contests for the prize I 
What is Quinctilians statement on this subject I 

33. Can you mention any play, or plays, of -ZEschylus, 
in which a greater number of Dorisms is observable than in 
his others ? Do you conceive that this circumstance may 
be applied to determine the chronological order of the plays 
which remain to us ? 

34. Is (j7rioQ yhriaOe legitimate \ State Dawes 1 Canon 
respecting the use of «va, otypa, wc, &c. to denote a purpose. 

35. Are there any pretensions to the invention of tragedy 
prior to Thespis I Define the date of its origin ; and show 
how it bears upon the question of the authenticity of the 
Letters of Phalaris. What was the nature of Thespis's 
pieces l Is there any thing of the same kind to be found 
among the works of the three great tragedians I Author 
of the serious tragedy ? 

36. Enumerate and explain the chief parts and divisions 
of the Greek Theatre. To what festivals were dramatic 
exhibitions at first confined at Athens ? To what were they 
afterwards added \ What was the nature of the competi- 
tions of the tragedians ? With what pieces did they con- 
tend ? And how was the prize adjudged \ 

37. Who was the Kopv^aToc \ And whence is the word 



510 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

derived ? What was the expense of a tragic chorus I 
What was the office of the XopoSiSaaicaXog ? 

38. What was the number of the chorus in the time of 
Sophocles ? What is the common account given of the re- 
duction of its number ? Is there any thing in the charac- 
ter of iEschylus which makes that account probable or 
otherwise ? 

39. Define the IttektoBlov, irapodog, ££o§o?,- (JTaaijuov, 

KOjU/XOC- 

40. At What period did Sophocles live ? What public 
office did he bear ? At what age did he die ? What is 
known of his general feelings and conduct towards iEschy- 
lus ! Are any traces of a contrary feeling discernible in 
the writings of Euripides ? 

41. Arrange the plays of Sophocles in the chronological 
order of their subjects, and mention those of iEschylus and 
Euripides, which are written on the same subjects with 
any of them. 

42. What catastrophe does Aristotle consider best for 
tragedy \ Which of the three tragedians most generally 
accords with his opinion on this point ? 

43. What species of character does the same critic con- 
sider as best adapted for tragedy I Compare the character 
of Philoctetes, in this respect, with the Timon of Shaks- 
peare ? 

44. Define the HtgmiTua and "'Avayvwpimg; and say if 
there be any example of either or both in the Philoctetes 
of Sophocles ? 

45. Explain the caesuras of an iambic senarius— the rule 
relating to an anapaest in the case of a proper name — and 
that respecting a whole metre being included in a single 
Word. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 511 

46. Define the pause ; the quasi-cwsura ; and the metri- 
cal ictus. Explain the six classes of the avarrj^aTLKa ; also 
the six species of the Kara ax^^v. 

47. Give a general account of the usage of the tragedians 
in respect of the quantity of the second syllable of avia and 
its derivatives. How do they scan firi ov \ Is their prac- 
tice invariable ! 

48. Mark the quantity of the former syllable in Xiav, 
iriKpog, juiKpoc,— of irag, and the latter syllable in julyae, j 
TaXag, raXav. 

49. Accentuate ovre and ot>Se, and account for the dif- 
ference. Mark the difference of accent, according to the 
different significations, in irovripog, Qzav, koXojq, Sidofitv ; 
and of accent and breathing in ae, airXoog, tjv, zvi. 

50. Mention by what moods and tenses the particles ov 
fir) are necessarily followed. Show generally the difference 
of construction between xpw an ^ St? ; and illustrate particu- 
larly the Attic usage of the latter word. 

51. Distinguish between history, epic poetry, tragedy 
and comedy. In what do they agree I In what do they 
differ ? 

52. In tragedy what are the instruments, the manner, 
and the objects of imitation ! In what order of importance 
does Aristotle place these last ? 

53. Was the law of the three unities a law of the Greek 
school 1 State your opinion, and with it examples, either 
confirming that opinion, or exceptions to it. — Did the 
Roman school admit the law ? What modern school has 
most strictly conformed to it ? State the inconveniences of 
a rigid adherence to the law. What does Corneille mean 
by la liaison des scenes ? 

54. In what manner, and by what funds was the Athe- 



512 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

nian stage supported I What is the greatest amount on 
record of their theatrical expenses in one year ? Were 
these funds ever infringed \ What was the difficulty in in- 
fringing them \ Give the meaning of the terms : XuTovpyiai 
tyKvicXioL, yppi\yia, \opr}y6v Ivsjkuv, \opr}yuv TpayigSolg, 
avri^oprjyoi, ■\opodidcKTKa\oi, ap-%iQ&topia. 

55. To whom do the Arundel marbles ascribe the inven- 
tion of tragedy ? Between what two events is the epoch of 
its invention placed I Approximate by this means to the 
date of the invention. Does the authority of Plutarch or 
of Plato coincide with the marbles \ When, and under 
what king, were the Arundel marbles engraved? Why 
called Arundel I On what subjects are they most particular I 

56. To whom has the invention of comedy been ascribed ? 
What is the opinion of Theocritus ? of Aristotle I Who 
is named by the Arundel marbles as the inventor I Which 
way does the etymology of certain scenic words lean 1 
What is the reason that so little is known of the progress 
of comedy 2 

57. Explain the expressions, ovdlv irpbg tov Aiovvctov, 
BaK^og or£ rpiTrov Karayoi \opov, wairzp is ajua^g, yt<j)v- 
piZug, TTOfiTrsvug. 

58. Give an account of the regular anapaestic verse used 
by the tragedians. Is the anapaestic verse of Aristophanes 
subject to the same rules I Does Seneca observe the law 
of avvatyua ? 

59. What other arts reached their perfection at Athens 
at the same time with tragedy \ Mention the historians, 
poets, philosophers, statesmen, and artists of note, who 
were contemporary with Sophocles, and citizens of Athens. 

60. Show the propriety of the Greek names for article, 
noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, conjunction, prepo- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 513 

sition. Do the Greek grammarians allow interjections as a 
separate class I Show the importance of the article in the 
terms to tt\oXov } oi EvSe/ca, 6 avOpwTrog. 

61. Stya receives four different accents. Give the mean- 
ings and quantities of the word so accentuated. Distin- 
guish between olog and olog, etpi and si/lu, vvv and vvv, vp.iv 
and vfiiv. What rule does Porson lay down for the quan- 
tity of avrip \ Give Clarke's rule for the quantity of the 
final syllable of accusatives of nouns in cu?. 

62. Whence did the error of a second future arise ? Men- 
tion the different Ionic futures, both active and middle, 
which the Attic dialect contracted. Assign a reason for 
the difference of the futures of the two dialects. Will this 
reason apply to the termination ktu I Why are not Ionic 
and Attic futures always different I 

63. When adverbs are derived from substantives, from 
which case are they derived ? Show the manner of their for- 
mation. In the form avotpwKTi, apay^i, how do you ascer- 
tain whether the termination is u or i ? What is the quan- 
tity of the final 1 1 

64. Is the augment elided in tragedy I Is a diphthong 
ever elided ? Is at elided in the case of the third persons, 
or the infinitives of verbs I State the opinions of Dawes, 
Tyrwhitt* and Lobeck. 

65. When is it probable that the word TpayqSia was first 
used ? What name, according to Bentley, was originally 
common to both tragedy and comedy \ 

66. To what regulations were the competitors for prizes 
subject in producing their dramas \ Whence arose the ne- 
cessity of Horace's precept I " Nee quarta loqui persona 
lahoretr What length of time is it probable that the 
audience were kept at one sitting \ 

L L 



514 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

67. What argument is used by Porson, and what by 
Elmsley, to prove that ovSac was written ov& sic by the 
Attics ? Are there any examples of elisions at the end of 
iambic lines, and under what circumstances I 

68. What is the quantity of a syllable consisting of a short 
vowel followed by a mute and liquid in Homer \ what in 
tragic 1 what in comic verse ? 

69. What is Dawes's Canon respecting a syllable in 
which a short vowel precedes one of the middle consonants, 
j3, y, 8, followed by any of the liquids except p ? Are 
there any cases in which the rale is violated I 

70. What cases are commonly used absolutely? To 
what may the nominative absolute usually be referred? 
What distinction is made by Elmsley between the genitive 
and the accusative absolute ? What difference is there be- 
tween the genitive absolute with and without wg ? Is the 
accusative absolute ever found without this particle I 

71. State Dawes's Canon respecting the prolongation of 
a short vowel before p. Show where it is erroneous, and 
give the correct one. Does the same rule obtain in Homeric 
verse ? 

72. Where was Euripides born, in what Olympiad, and 
year before Christ I Give an accurate rule for converting 
dates before Christ into the corresponding periods of Olym- 
piads, and the contrary. 

73. Who was his philosophical preceptor I What other 
illustrious persons studied under the same master 1 Refer 
to some of the peculiar tenets in his writings, which he is 
supposed to have derived from this source. 

74. Explain the parabasis of comedy ; and say in what 
manner Euripides is supposed to have supplied its place. 

75. What stage of the Attic dialect was in use at Athens 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 515 

in the time of Euripides 2 How does his language vary 
from it, and why ? Explain what is meant by the Middle 
Attic, and how far it is a distinct branch from both Old and 
New, 

76. Explain the principle of attraction between the rela- 
tive and its antecedent. State the utmost extent to which 
it is carried ; and produce instances of the more unusual 
cases. 

77. An interchange of sense sometimes takes place be- 
tween the different voices of verbs. State what tenses, in 
each respectively, most frequently change their sense, and 
how ? 

78. What are Aristotle's rules respecting the rJ0ij ? 
Which of the characters in the Orestes of Euripides does 
he censure as faulty in this point, and on what ground ? 

79. What difference has been observed between the ge- 
neral character of the choric odes of Euripides, and those of 
the preceding tragedians ? 

80. What error have modern critics, as Dacier and 
Brumoy, fallen into, as to the division of the Greek tragedy 
into acts ? What was the division of the Greek tragedy ? 

81. TpaywSia and rpvytodia were quite distinct ? What 
was the satyric drama? By whom invented? Did the 
Roman satira correspond to the vaTvpiKri of the Greeks ? 

82. What was Bentley's opinion as to the primary signi- 
fication of the word kwju^Sici ? The passage which he ad- 
duces to prove its meaning suggests a better etymology, 
which is almost established by a passage in Demosthenes. 

83. Give some evidence of the estimation in which actors 
were held by the Athenians. The name of their most cele- 
brated actor ? 

84. Who invented the signs of the accents \ State the 
difference between accent and quantity. How is accent in- 



516 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

fluenced by quantity ? How does the leading syllable of 
the word serve to regulate the accent ? 

85. In general a long final syllable affects the accent ; 
what are the exceptions to this law ? 

86. What deviation from the old iEolic usage is to be 
observed in the more recent dialects, with reference to the 
use of the accent ? 

87. How does the consideration of the dual number prove 
that the iEolic is the most ancient dialect of Greece ? 

88. What are the enclitics? Mention the principal of 
them. In what cases, generally, do they throw back the 
accent ; and when not ? In what cases does it happen that 
a word can have a double accent ? 

89. Give the different meaning of the following words 
according to the difference of accentuation, 7rapa, atvog, ava, 
vofxog, 7rort, ojxtog, (j>u)g, wg ? 

90. State the rules laid down by Dawes and Elmsley as 
to 'tva, 6(j>pa, &c. ; when do they govern the indicative ; 
when the optative ; and when the subjunctive ? What are 
the moods and tenses governed by oirug ? 

91. Derive the names paroemiac, logaoedic, dochmiac, 
prosodiac ; and define these different metres. 

92. What were the changes in the quantity of the penul- 
timate of KaXbg at different periods? and what argument 
was thence derived by Clarke as to the date of Hesiod ? 

93. What feet are admissible into a pseonic line ? 

94. What variety does the hypercatalectic syllable of a 
dochmiac admit of ? This is rendered probable by an usual 
licence allowed in ionics a majore. 

95. Is there any way of admitting a proper name into a 
tragic senarian, when it contains an anapaest, besides that 
assigned by Porson ? 

96. Enumerate the cases in which the fifth foot of a sena- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 517 

rius may be a spondee. Porson's Canon concerning the 
fifth foot ! 

97. Is any foot besides the equivalents of the anapaest 
ever admissible into an anapaestic line I 

98. What is the rule concerning the final syllable of di- 
meters, and how is this rule to be understood I 

99. There are two different acceptations of the words 
apaiQ and diaig ; which is the most received \ 

100. In what manner does Hermann state that Sophocles 
usually avoided an anapaest in the beginning of a senarius, 
when the first word began with an anapaest I 

101. On what principle does Hermann get rid of such 
anapaests as 61 tyuj I 

102. How does he explain the admissibility of the dac- 
tyl in preference to the anapaest into iambics \ 

103. In what case does he think it unnecessary that the 
anapaest in the first place should be contained in one word I 

104. He reasons as to the anapaest differently from Por- 
son ? 

105. What illustrations of the laws of the iambic sena- 
rius does Porson derive from the trochaic tetrameter cata- 
lectic I 

106. In what sense was the word " imitation " applied 
by Aristotle ? Whence was his view chiefly derived I 
What are the means of poetic imitation ? 

107. Of the different species of poetic imitation, that by 
dramatic personation is more strictly applicable to poetry 
than imitation by fiction or description ? 

108. Distinguish between the imitation produced by de- 
scription, and that produced by fiction. How do mental 
objects admit of descriptive imitation I 

109. The Dorians claim both tragedy and comedy ; on 



1)18 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

what grounds, respectively ? The claim of the Megarians 
is supported by certain proverbial expressions, and by the 
testimony of Ecphantides ? 

110. Derive the words, viroKphriQ, Spafxa, Kiofiqdia, SiBv- 
pafifiog. 

111. What change took place in the dithyrambic poetry 
after it became imitative ; and give the reasons of the 
change ? 

112. What is meant by the avajSoXat of the dithyrambic 
poets ? What style of prose diction does Aristotle compare 
to the two styles of the dithyrambic poetry \ 

118. Poetry derives its origin from two causes? Distin- 
guish rhythm from metre. 

114. Mention some of the arguments used to show that 
Thespis was the author of tragedy. Mention others to 
whom tragedy has been ascribed. To whom is comedy as- 
cribed ? 

115. To whom does Aristotle attribute the primary 
suggestion of both tragedy and comedy ? 

116. Who first introduced a female actor on the stage? 
Give the circumstances of the first dramatic victory of 
Sophocles. 

117. Aristotle uses cttekto&ov in two senses, each differ- 
ing from the modern episode. What were the two parts 
of tragedy originally \ 

118. Give examples of avayvwpKrtQ and irspnrtTtia from 
Shakspeare. What species of tragedy would you reduce 
Hamlet to I And what Othello ? Mention the Simg and 
\vaig in Macbeth, the Merchant of Venice, and Richard II. I 

119. What was Dacier's error as to the Unities? State 
Johnson's arguments to show that the Unities of time and 
place are not essential to a just drama. 



THE GKECIAN DRAMA. 51Q 

120. Distinguish ir^nreTeia from jU£Taj3a<rtc ; XsStC from 
fiiXog ; and the unity of the fable from its totality. 

121. What, according to Aristotle, is the nature of 
poetry in general, and what of tragedy in particular I What 
is his expression for this latter object, and what meanings 
have been assigned to it ? What is the most probable, and 
why I 

122. Horace seems to differ from Aristotle, as to the 
general end of poetry, but this difference is only apparent \ 

123. From what causes does Aristotle derive poetry ? 
How does he prove imitation to be productive of pleasure ? 
He applies the same reasoning in his Rhetoric ; how I 
What theories have been advanced to account for the 
pleasure we receive from the imitation of unpleasant 
objects, such as the distress in tragedy ; give a sketch of 
the principles, and the objections to them. 

124. In what sense does Aristotle make poetry and 
music imitative arts I What passages would you quote in 
support of that sense ? What is the difference between 
HL/j.uaOai and iroLuaSat rfjv fii/uLYiatv I 

125. How does the imitation of the drama differ from 
that of the epopee, dithyrambics, and nomes ? State how 
nomes differ from dithyrambics. Why is fiirpov synonymous 
with Xoyog I juiXog is twofold. 

126. What species of composition were the mimes of 
Sophron and the dialogues of Socrates \ How do you shew 
that the dialogues of Plato were regarded by the ancients 
as dramatic ? 

127. Tragedies are divided into four kinds ; of which kind 
is the Prometheus I How is the third species distinguished 
from comedy? 

128. Compare Horace's rule for the chorus with Aris* 



520 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

totle's. " Officium virile," what I State the progress of the 
chorus ? 

129. How do the orator and the poet agree and differ? 
What is Aristotle's definition of the article, and Middleton's 
explanation ? 

130. How does Aristotle distribute the different sorts of 
words to the different species of poetry ? What is his real 
opinion about the unities of fable, time, and place ? What 
his rule about the comparative length of an epic, &c. drama ? 

131. What is Diogenes Laertius** statement about tetra- 
logies ? From what passage iri Horace would tetralogies 
seem to have been in use on the Roman stage ? 

132. Aristotle seems to differ from Horace with regard 
to the subject of the drama ? How does it appear, and 
how are they reconciled? Whether does he prefer the 
epic or the tragic ? 

133. When was the drama first exhibited at Rome? 
From whence taken? A remarkable proof of the popu- 
larity of the Fabulw Atellance ? What was the first per- 
manent theatre at Rome ? Prcetextatas, togatas, taberna- 
rias — Describe them. 

134. What is the chronological order of the extant plays 
of jEschylus ? Why is the Persse supposed to be prior to 
the Prometheus ? Under what censure does the fable of 
the Prometheus fall ? 

135. To what sect of philosophy was JEschylus attached ? 
How is this apparent in his plays ? What great comic 
writer belonged to the same school ? 

136. How do ava<)i%a£,ai and SiaaKtvaZziv differ? Which 
does Blomfield apply to the Persse, and which Boeck to the 
Eumenides ? What were the SidcunzaXtai ? 

137. When was the first tetralogy represented, and when 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 521 

the last? How many different choruses originally, and 
what were the respective prizes? Which remained, and 
what the number of performers in each ? 

138. iEschylus violates the unity of place ? Sophocles 
that of time ? What characters did iEschylus introduce 
into the drama ? Who introduced the same into comedy ? 

139. What improvements does Aristotle assign to iEschy- 
lus ? What does Horace \ Why do they not assign the same \ 

140. The Latin language is supposed to be derived from 
the Greek ; from what form of it, and how is this proved I 
What are the rules of Latin accentuation, and from what 
do they seem to be derived I 

141. Enumerate some of the principal rules of Greek 
accentuation. State by whom the accentual marks were 
invented, and give the meaning of the following words as 
they vary in accent, viz. — ovkovv, veog, vo/uiog, irudio, (ofiog, 
rj, 7rpeuroroKoe, aXXa, aywv, a\r}0eg, j5tog^ Oza, Oeiov, Xaog, 
fiovri, fivgioi, ofiwg 2 . 

142. What does the mark of the grave accent imply. 
Has a word two accents at the same time ? What is the 
accentuation of egtl \ Give an instance of enclitics in 
English. Mention some of the differences of accentuation 
in the different dialects. 

143. What is Porson's rule for the insertion of the aug- 
ment in Attic Greek? Does he admit any exception? 
What is Elmsley's rule with regard to the number of tri- 
syllabic feet in a senarius ? 

144. What is Dawes's rule about a short vowel meeting 
a middle consonant and a liquid I Mention Porson's modi- 
fication of it. What is Elmsley's rule for the elision in the 
beginning of words, and Dawes's for the initial p \ What 
is synapheia, and in what sorts of verse does it occur ? 



522 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

145. What are the parts of a tragedy Kara irolav ? State 
their relative importance. How are tragedies divided Kara 
to iroaovl 

146. How do jU£raj3a(7£c, jiifraj3oXi], Trepnri-tia, irapaficmQ) 
differ \ How do a single and a simple fable differ ? 

147. To whom does Aristotle ascribe the invention of 
comedy I What was the nature of his pieces ? A play 
modelled upon one of his remains 1 Who among the Athe- 
nians first wrote comedy? The inventor of the satyric 
drama ? 

148. What does Aristotle mean by applying the epithet 
TpayucioTciTOQ to Euripides I On what grounds does Longi- 
nus praise Euripides for his style? How does Aristotle 
censure him ? 

149. From Phrynichus's introduction of female charac- 
ters, Bentley argues against a common reading of the 
Arundel Marbles ? 

150. What was the first law against dramatic exhibi- 
tions, and how long did it continue ? What changes took 
place in the Greek comedy ? Mention the principal writers 
in each period ? 

151. Mention the names of the supposed inventors and 
perfecters of the several species of the drama, viz.— the 
tragic, comic, and satyric. 

152. What remarkable circumstance synchronised with, 
and seems to have operated on the improvement of the 
drama ? When was the first stone theatre erected, and 
why? 

153. What are the different choruses mentioned by 
Lysias ? How many composed each ? What is the cyclic 
chorus ? Does Bentley prefer kvkXikoq or kvkXioq ? What 
does Blomfield suppose the x°P°e avSpwv to have been? 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 523 

154. The improvements of iEschylus we find in Phryni- 
chujs, and of Sophocles in iEschylus, why ? The names of 
iEschylus's actors and scene-painters are preserved ? 

155. When, according to the Marbles, did the dramatic 
contests commence I At what season of the year, what 
months, and at what feasts were they held ? Give the names 
and traditionary reasons for the three days of the festival 
tv \lf.ivaig. 

156. Give the accurate meaning of the phrases and words 
iEsapScu, £7T£tcro&«, fieTavaoraatg, ttzzuv to. tKpia, viroKpiTriQ, 
OvfxiXrj, ovSzv irpog Aiovvaov. 

157. Why, according to Schlegel, does tragedy please, 
notwithstanding that its subjects are frequently disagree- 
able ? How does the same writer illustrate the difference 
between epic and tragic poetry I 

158. Agamemnon is introduced byiEschylus in a chariot ; 
mention what instances of gods occur to you as introduced 
by machinery ? do you remember any other mortal intro- 
duced in a chariot ? 

159. What is the proper meaning of verbal adjectives in 
Twg and tzov ? How are they formed and accented \ Dis- 
tinguish between jurjrf, f.ir\Zi ; ours, ovt>i ; ovkovv, ovk-ovv ; 
&O, Sm ? 

160. W r hat are the distinctive features of the old, mid- 
dle, and new comedy? Who was the first comic poet 
among the Athenians? Where was Aristophanes born, 
and at what period ? How is this nearly fixed by the clouds ? 

161. When was the Nubes exhibited? What proof have 
we in the extant play that it was twice represented ? How 
does it appear that it was not regarded as a personal attack 
by Socrates' friends ? 

162. How do the tragic and comic senarius differ? What 



524* THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

are the rules of the iambic tetrameter cat. as used by Aris- 
tophanes ! How do tragic and comic tetrameter trochaics 
differ ? What is Porson's observation as to the second foot 
of a tragic trochaic tetrameter 2 

163. What is the anapaestic measure peculiar to Aristo- 
phanes ? What its rules, and what restriction as to caesuras 
common to it with the trochaic tragic tetrameter ? 

164. How does Porson account for the apparent viola- 
tions of prosody in Aristophanes, and what examples does 
he give I 

165. Assign the respective origins of the chorus and dia- 
logue of Greek tragedy, and state wherein the dithyrambic 
and phallic choruses differed essentially from the satyric. 

166. Whether was the satyric or tragic drama the more 
ancient \ By whom was the former devised, and to whom 
do we owe the successive improvements in the latter ? 

167. A third species of Grecian drama has been traced 
as existing at a remote period ; among what people ? How 
was it denominated, and what form of the modern drama 
did it resemble ? 

168. What magistrate presided at each of the dramatic 
festivals ? How were the actors and choruses appointed ? 
Who decided at the contests? What rewards were given 
originally ? What in after time ? Were they confined to 
the successful author ? 

169. How was the rank of the personages on the Grecian 
stage indicated, and the quarter from whence they were 
supposed to come ? 

170. Euripides has been censured on two grounds re- 
specting the conduct of his dramas 2 Even in the dialogue 
he is at times chargeable as in his choruses. 

171. How often might the chorus be introduced, and 






THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 525 

what were the denominations of these several inter- 
ludes \ 

172. What reason has been assigned by Hermann for 
the rules which Porson detected, respecting the admission 
of a spondee into the fifth place of a senarius ? 

173. From what principle does Hermann derive a 
reason for the admission of spondees into the odd places of 
iambic verse, and into the even places of trochaic I 

1 74. From the same principle he shews why the ithy- 
phallic verse differs from the analogy of other trochaic verses 
in this respect ? 

175. In anapaestic systems, is there any other indication 
of continuous scansion besides the synapheia I What is the 
only limitation of concurring feet in parcemiacs ? 

] 76. How do you account for the effect that $ initial 
produces on a short vowel preceding it ? 

177. The choral odes in Sophocles may be divided, in re- 
ference to their subjects, into four classes, according to 
Heeren ? Those of ^Eschylus into how many \ 

178. Show that the accenting of words is in general in- 
dependent of their relative positions? What exception 
must be made to this rule in the case of prepositions and 
adverbs \ specify the instances. 

179. From what general rule regarding the acute accent* 
may we infer that the penultimate should be accented if the 
last syllable be naturally long, and that the ante-penulti- 
mate never can be circumflexed ? 

180. When does a contracted syllable admit the circum- 
flex accent, and what are the exceptions to this rule 1 

181. What, according to Schlegel, is the peculiar cha- 
racter of the Greek tragedy, and what of the old Greek 
comedy ? 



526 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

182. Name the first and last writers of the middle and 
new comedy. Who first used invented and general sub- 
jects ? Whence, according to Schlegel, the introduction of 
the parabasis into comedy, and not into tragedy ? 

183. What is the difference between lvixvpa£uv, lvt\v- 
piaZtiv ; vvv, vvv ; apa, apa ; iSou, Idov ; Tnpirvyuv, kirtrv- 
\etv ; avafizrpuaQai, fiETpuaQai ; kcu wtoe, ttwc kcii ; Si$6vat, 
cnrodiSovat. 

184. What is Dawes' rules as to the tenses with which 
ov jut), o7rwc /u?7, may be connected ? What is the differ- 
ence of government between xpi) and Sa ? How do tragic 
and comic poets differ as to the use of 7T£jot before a vowel \ 
Is i paragogic shortened or lengthened ? 

185. What other god is said to have had similar choruses 
to those in honour of Bacchus ? State the place and the 
authority ? 

186. What is Bentley's opinion about the word rpayio- 
$ia ? What are the authorities against him, and how does 
he reply to them ? Bentley's opinion partly confuted by 
the evidence of inscriptions more recently discovered : 
What are they, and how do you argue from them ? 

187. Prove that SchlegeFs opinion upon the subject of 
iEschylus'' visit to Sicily is inaccurate. How does Boeckh 
reconcile the several opinions I State his opinion as to the 
acting of the Eumenides. 

1881 What is the tetralogy of the Orestiad 1 When was 
it acted ? Who is said to have first contended with single 
plays ! 

189. With what character of the modern drama is Cly- 
tsemnestra usually compared? How do the authors of 
these respective characters endeavour to soften the almost 
uniform ferocity of their heroines ? 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA 527 

190. Under what restriction as to proper names, accord- 
ing to Elmsley, is the anapaest admissible into senarian 
verse ? Does the same rule hold with regard to dactyls of 
proper names in the troch. tetram. cat. ? When must the 
second foot of such a line always be a trochee \ 

191. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the 
chorus of the ancient drama S What instances have we in 
the modern drama of its successful revival ? 

192. What is the meaning of Kara &x^iv, fiovogrpo^tKa, 
t7T(^BtKa Kara. TrtpiKoirriv ££ ofioltov ? What is Canter's divi- 
sion of the choric odes ? 

193. Explain the phrases, »cara Zvya, kuto, aroixovg, 
■tljiiyppla, $i\opia, avrt^opta, rpi^opta, fj.£GV](opoQ. 

194. What is the number of plays that have been attri- 
buted to Sophocles I Boeckh thinks the number greatly 
overrated — What are his arguments ? State any counter- 
acting ones that may occur to you \ 

195. Mention the tenses of \ar\\\xi that have a transitive, 
and those that have an intransitive signification. What is 
the difference of jurj before an indicative, and [irj before a 
subjunctive mood I When may different moods be connected 
together ? 

196. Eicojueu differently derived by the Ionic and Attic 
poets ? Give instances of the former from Homer. Whence 
arises the construction called nominatims pendens I When 
is the genitive absolute to be used ? 

197. ( Hq is sometimes put for slg — Mention the usual 
limitation, and give an example from Thucydides to the 
reverse, that is quoted by Matthise? Whence does this 
substitution arise I 

198. What does the participle signify when put with nai \ 
The future is sometimes put for the imperative — What is 
the construction \ 



5Z» THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

1.99. Give the Doric and Ionic variations of the personal 
pronouns, and of the verb d/ul. Write clown the enclitics 
and atonies. When do enclitics retain, when lose, and 
when transfer their accents ? 

200. What is the rule for the accentuation of contracted 
syllables, and what for that of words whose last accented 
vowels have experienced elision I 

201. State the general rules for accenting the penulti- 
mate or antepenultimate in Latin and in Greek, and 
wherein they differ. What are the caesuras of an iambic 
senary ? 

202. What evidence is there in favour of the claims of 
the Megarians to the invention of comedy? What was 
the metre of the mimes of Sophron, and what Latin poet 
is said to have imitated them ? 

203. What was the nature of Homer's Margites ? What 
is the source of our information on the subject ? and what 
influence had it on comedy ? 

204. Give the names and order of the plays of Aristo- 
phanes before the ".Clouds." What is the first extant, and 
what were his two last plays \ What was the political 
scope of the " Knights." and of the " Acharnians V 

205. How was the change brought about from the old 
to the middle comedy ? Quote the passage from the Art 
of Poetry, in which that change is described. What did 
Aristophanes compose in the style of the middle comedy I 

206. The play of the " Clouds" has been considered as 
one of a tetralogy : What were the others, and the general 
scope of them ! What was the probable occasion and sub- 
ject of the Trvrivr\ \ 

207. What was the legal age for exhibiting a dramatic 
piece ? How is this point doubtful I 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 529 

208. The choral odes of JEschylus are divided into two 
classes, by a distinction which does not occur in Sopho- 
cles 1 

209. Mention the principal Doric dithyrambic poets, and 
their countries. What was the nature of the ancient 
choral poetry of Sicyon and of iEgina \ 

210. What was the iraXaia rpayojdia of the Boeotian 
inscriptions, according to Boeckh I How is this distin- 
guished from the scenic tragedy in the Orchomenian and 
Thespian inscriptions, respectively I 

211. Distinguish the iroiriTng, 4 , uywSoc, and viroKpLTrjg 
from each other ; and point out the difference in the mode 
in which the ancient inscriptions employ these words with 
respect to the new and old tragedy ? 

212. What praise does Quinctilian confer on Euripides, 
as compared with Sophocles? What are the peculiar 
merits and defects of Euripides l What metre is called 
Euripidean \ 

213. What instance may be given of the chorus in 
Euripides allowing immoral acts I What immoral sentiment 
in one of his plays excited the indignation of the audience \ 

214. How was the ancient tragedy divided for the most 
part into five acts \ What distinction was there in the 
names given to the choral songs in the tragedies ? 

215. General rule of the Paeonic system? What feet 
are ordinarily admissible into the epichoriambic, and what 
jcar' avTiiraOeiav I What is meant by the avaKXwfisvov ? 
What metres used by Horace may be referred to the 
antispastic class % 

216. How does Hermann account for the mixture of 
cretic feet with dochmiacs I What rule does he lay down 
concerning the caesura in dimeter anapsestics, occurring in 

M M 



530 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

regular systems? In such systems can a dactyl be followed 
by an anapaest 1 

217. Of the improvements in tragedy, which Horace 
asserts to have been introduced by iEschylus, some have 
been ascribed to an earlier tragedian ? 

218. Is there any thing in English dramatic literature 
corresponding with the construction of trilogies I 

219. To what cause may be ascribed the confusion res- 
pecting the birth place of Aristophanes ? This indictment 
of Zevia has been confounded with another accusation 
brought forward by the same person ? 

220. In what year did Aristophanes first exhibit in ihis 
own name, what was the object of the play then produced, 
and what success did it meet with ? 

221. How did the absence of the Trapafiamg become a 
distinguishing mark of the middle comedy ? What were 
the component parts of a Trapafiamg \ What was the num- 
ber of the comic chorus I 

222. During the period of the old comedy there was but 
one restriction upon the poets, which we know of with his- 
torical certainty I 

223. What canon does Porson lay down respecting the 
use of such words as iaodov ;by the comic writers ? State 
the laws of the Aristophanic anapaestic metre. What li- 
cences are allowed in it ? 

224. Trace the gradual changes which the chorus under- 
went from its origin till its final extinction. 

225. Which of the tenses is almost uniformly excluded 
from the Greek tragedians, and why ? 

226. Distinguish between onwg av with the optative, and 
with the subjunctive ; between ov ju?} with the future indi- 
cative, and with the aorist subjunctive. 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 



531 



227. There are five modes in which the permutation of 
numbers is effected. What does Hermann understand by 
irrational times ? 

228. How does he define polyschematistic verses ? He 
reduces to this class verses which former metricians con- 
sidered as antispastic. 

229. What are the laws of the verse called Eupolidean 
polyschematistus ? What rules apply both to the tragic 
and comic senarius ? 

230. A distinguished modern poet has made Agamemnon 
the subject of a tragedy, which, though nearly the same in 
its incidents, differs materially from that of iEschylus in the 
delineation of some of the dramatis personse. 

231. Hurd and Schlegel hold opposite opinions as to the 
effect produced upon the mind by the thought of a personal 
and actual reality in the catastrophe. 

232. M tiller does not admit the truth of Aristotle's as- 
sertion, that Epicharmus and Phormis first invented comic 
fables. He conjectures that comedy was transplanted from 
Megara to Syracuse. By whom, and at what time I 

233. Of what nature does Bentley suppose the comedies 
of Susarion to have been \ And how does he endeavour to 
prove the spuriousness of some iambic lines attributed to 
Susarion by Diomedes I 

234. Silvern points out a close affinity between the play 
of the " Clouds; 1 and that of the " Frogs." How is it 
inferred that Aristophanes commenced a second edition of 
the " Clouds," but never completed it ? To what did he 
himself attribute its failure ? 

235. What were the opinions of ancient writers on the 
comparative merits of the three great tragedians ; and how 
will you account for the peculiar difference of character 
observable in their compositions I 



532 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

236. Of what number did the chorus consist, in its im- 
proved state ? In what order was it arranged, and what 
part of the theatre did it occupy ? Explain its use and 
importance. 

237. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the 
chorus ? And what other differences are observable be- 
tween the Greek and English drama, as to plot, moral, 
passion, and character ? Compare iEschylus with Shaks- 
peare in the last mentioned particulars I 

238. What kind of events and character of a hero is the 
most proper for tragedy, according to Aristotle, and for 
what reasons ? 

239. What are the characteristics of the Ionic and Attic 
dialects as to augments, and contractions ? And what is 
the probable origin of them f 

240. What is the difference between ■ epeiv, \£ytiv, ytyur 
vtiv, and between tjjcw, epxopm, %\0ov, slpt. 

241. Into what feet of a senarius can anapaests and dac- 
tyls be admitted ? Does the rule hold with respect to 
proper names \ Why cannot the third and fourth feet be 
included in the same word ? In what cases only can the 
fifth foot of a tragic senarius be a spondee I 

242. What is the caesura ? In a senarius, where must it 
fall to be most harmonious f How many kinds are there of 
this caesura ? 

243. Explain the quasi-cwsura, and in what manner the 
harmony of lines is improved by it, where the caesura is 
wanting ; also the pause, and the reason for it. In lines 
which have neither cwsura nor quasi-cwsura, what may the 
omission be intended to denote ? 

244. Where a tribrach is admitted into any place, or an 
anapaest into the first place of a line, are these feet usually 
comprised in one word, or divided between different words f 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 533 

245. State the rules for the construction of the trochaic 
tetrameter catalectic, and of the anapaestic tetrameter 
catalectic. In the former is an anapaest admitted ? In 
what even feet of the latter is a dactyl admitted, and where 
it is admitted, what foot usually precedes it ? 

246. In what kind of metre originally were the satyric 
verses, and what is the reason given by Aristotle I Which 
of the extant plays contains most of this metre 2 

247. Who was the inventor of the regular satyric drama I 
How many of this species have been preserved, and what 
reason may be assigned for the number being small I 

248. At what time of the year was the Athenian vintage I 
Does it correspond with the time of the festivals at which 
tragedies were acted I 

249. Mention the regulations adopted with regard to the 
appointment of the judges, of the choruses, and of the 
actors ; and the time allowed to each poet. 

250. How often in the day was the theatre filled, and 
what number of people was it capable of containing ? Ex- 
plain the terms, eo-KEua, fiiXog, vjuvog, TrapoSog, aramfxov, 
KOfifiog, SiSacncaXog tov xppov, Siaig, \vgiq, airepyama, hr- 
uaoSiov, t^oSoe, iiZTafiamg, TtapafiaaiQ. 

251. Determine the usage of the tragic raters in the 
following particulars. (1). The omission of the aug- 
ment. Mention some verbs which are singular in this re- 
spect, or in the formation of it. (2). The admission of an 
hiatus, and the quantity of the diphthong, if it be admitted : 
also the elision of vowels, or non- elision in any words and 
cases, and at the end of aline. (3). The duplication of <r, 
as in tarro/uat, fiiaaog. (4). The quantity of diphthongs 
in the middle of words, such as, oloc, toiovtoq, ttoioq, 
yepcitoe, &c. and the quantity of a privatiwm. 



534 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

252. Compare the political and literary state of Athens 
in the time of iEschylus with that of England in the time of 
Shakespeare. What points of resemblance, and what of 
difference, may be observed in the style and genius of these 
poets ? 

253. Construct a Grecian theatre. Explain the meaning 
of the following terms : Aijvaiov, diaZw/j.ara, iclpiadzg, )3ov- 
\zvtikov, £0t)/3tKov, opxnarpa, Ov^sXrt, dpofiog, rfapodoi, 
ctffoSot, GKTqvr}) \oyuov, 7rpoaK7]Viov, vttogktivIov, irapaaKr]VLa, 
fiaai\dog, OeoXoyuov, mojpai, jxr]^avi], Jcara/BXijjuara, yipa- 
vog, fipovruov, KepavvoaK07reiov, cFKOirri, Ttixpg, irvpyog, 

<j)pVKTlbplOV, 7)fllKVK\lOV, OTpO^UOV, ^jUtffTjOO^HOV, £KKVKXl)jUa, 

\ap(Lvioi KX/juaK£C> ava7J7£(7jua, av\aia, wpotdpiai, irepiaiiToi, 
dicpifiag, irgoawiruov, p.opfJLo\vKtiov, yopyovetov, (5aTpa\tiov t 
tfifiarog Kokirwjia, -\itwv Trodriprjg, avpfxa, "xyaTig, luartov, 
I'Sw/xtC* $i(j>0ipa., 7T£7rXov, oyKog, jna(T\aXtaTrip£g. 

254. Explain the terms c/ijulXfia, Kop<$a%, aUivvig, v irvp- 
pi%r], rj yvfivoiraiBiKrit r) v7rop\7)paTi\r}. Give the difference 
between the Doric, Ionic, Phrygian, and Mixo-Lydian 
modes. 

255. Define anastrophe, metaphor, trope, personification, 
simile, and allegory. 

256. To poets of what dialect is synizesis peculiar I and 
how is it limited in Homer ? 

257. What o% you mean by dialect ? Give a full account 
of the Greek dialects, the ages and principal writers in each, 
and the countries in which they prevailed. 

258. Mention the different powers of the adverb av, with 
the indicative and optative moods. What is the construc- 
tion of prj with the imperative and subjunctive moods in a 
prohibitory sense ? 

259. How do you account for the two forms of the future 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



of SoKtto \ Which is the more modern, and which the more 
poetical \ 

260. What plays, extant, lost, or of which fragments 
only remain, were written on subjects connected with GEdi- 
dipus and his family by .ZEschylus, Sophocles, and Euri- 
pides \ 

261. How is the Doric dialect in the choruses to be ac- 
counted for I Give a list of words which retain the Doric 
form in the Attic dialogue. 

262. What Ionic words are found in the tragedies, and 
how may their introduction be accounted for I Was the 
same licence in this respect allowed to the comedians I 

263. What are the expressions for utinam in Greek ? 
Give instances of the imitation of the Greek mode of ex- 
pression from the Latin poets. 

264. Give the rules, with the most material exceptions, 
for the quantity of the final syllable of feminine substantives 
ending in a. 

265. What is the quantity of a short vowel followed by 
a soft, or aspirate mute, with any of the liquids A, jjl, v, p, 
or by a middle mute with p, in poets of different ages ? 
What rule may be given for its quantity in prose writers ? 

266. Give a brief summary of the most important critical 
discoveries of Bentley, Dawes, and Porso.n. 

267. Shew from Horace, (1). Who was the inventor of 
iambic verse ? (2). What is its peculiar fitness for drama- 
tic poetry ? (3). Why, and with what limitation, the 
spondee was admitted into it ? 

268. Give a chronological abstract of the events, which, 
during the lifetime of iEschylus, occurred in Persia, Ionia, 
Greece and Italy. 

369, Institute a brief comparison between iEschylus, 



536 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

Sophocles, and Euripides, in style, in sentiment, in ma- 
nagement of plot, in the conduct of the drama, and in their 
choral odes. 

270. What are the chief uses of the middle voice ? Dis- 
tinguish between irpauoui and Trpaacrofiai, (j>paZu) and (jtpaZo- 
fxaiy Ipvu) and Ipvofiai, tiu) and tiojucu, OiuOau vofiov and 
Oelvai vojxov. 

271. What are the general significations of verbal sub- 
stantives in tjoov, (as KOfiiaTpov), of adjectives in rticoc, and 
of verbs in gku) and o-f iu ? What Latin terminations cor- 
respond to the two last ? 

272. When is irplv av with the subjunctive preferred to 
irpXv with the infinitive ? Can av be joined with the indi- 
cative present ? 

273. Distinguish between fxrix°Q ana fimoQ — riK/iiap, av\x- 
j3oXov, cr///X£toy — ev aifieiv, evcrtfitlv — ^oXoc, kotoq — (jceri}?, 
7T/oooTp07rat6c — TtTwyhq, tt£vx\q — ovap, virap — viraiOpog, viral- 
Opiog — rpoTrata, Tpoirata — jurjrpoicrovoc, fi^rpoKTOvog — ovdl, 
ovte — firidt, /i//r£ — &a> Sta — ttou, irot, 7rf), 7rou, irot, ttij. 

274. The beacons which announced the destruction of 
Troy were stationed on the following mountains : Ida, Her- 
mseus (in Lemnos), Athos, Macistus (in Eubcea), Messa- 
pius and Oithseron (in Boeotia), yEgiplanctus (in Megaris), 
Arachnseus (in Argolis). Draw such a map as will enable 
you to mark out the situations of these mountains ; and in 
the same map place Troy, Tenedos, Athens, Thebes, Sparta, 
Mycenae, Delphi, and Delos. 

275. What was the motive of iEschylus for introducing 
Agamemnon on the stage in a chariot ? How is Pallas 
brought on in the Eumenides, Oceanus in the Prometheus, 
and Hercules in the Philoctetes ? 

276. What is \6yog in the early Attic draina ? What 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 537 

should we infer from analogy to have been the original 
meaning of TpiXoyia ? Could it have been applied in its 
primitive sense to any three plays of Sophocles ? What is 
the earliest instance we find of the use of the word ? 

277. What was the ordinary number of the tragic and 
comic chorus ? What is meant by x°9 OL Tsrpaywvot ? De- 
scribe the modes of entering, Kara £vya, and Kara otoi- 
\ovq ? 

278. What tragedies remain from the Greek stage relat- 
ing to the family of Agamemnon ? Place them in the order 
of the circumstances on which they are founded, and men- 
tion the subject of each. 

279. Give a short account of the plots of the Electra of 
Sophocles, the Electra of Euripides, and Ohoephoroe of 
iEschylus ; compare them, and shew in what respects the 
economy, beauties, and defects of each are characteristic 
of the genius of their several authors. 

280. What was the court before which Sophocles is said 
to have recited one of his poems, (mentioning the occasion, 
and the poem) ? When, and by whom, was that court 
founded ? What peculiarities marked its sittings ? 

281. In what consists the superiority of the Greek lan- 
guage over the Latin ? How do you account for the exist- 
ence of the dual number in the Greek, and for its absence 
from the Latin tongue ? 

282. What are the respective meanings of Tuy^arav, 
according as it is, or is not, followed by a participle ? Dis- 
tinguish accurately lirofiau fxireifii, duoKU), in their general 
usages. 

283. Explain the usage of wp\v with different moods. 
Distinguish between irg\v dtiwvuv, irplv cenrvriaai, irp\v $£- 
2«7rvrifcc-vcu. Mention the distinction between yaXrivri and 



538 THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 

vr)V£juiia, fiaoiXmq and Tvpavvog, Oapaog and Opaaog, rafyog 
and KoXwy)], 0?jkij and Trvpa. 

284. Define " a word," " a sentence." What is the most 
comprehensive distinction, 1. of sentences, 2. of words ? 
What species of words do you include, severally, under each 
denomination ? What are the origin and uses of the arti- 
cle strictly so called ? 

285. What are the several species of verbs ? Define each. 
What is the proper idea of present time ? What is the 
most natural division of tenses, in general ? 

286. With what exceptions did a century or a little more 
comprehend the golden age of Grecian literature ? By 
what events on either side was that period bounded ? State 
the same points in regard to Roman literature. 

287. Ba.K\()Q ors toittov Karayoi %op6v. Explain rptrrov 
^opov, and mention what the three were. In what months 
were they celebrated ? What were the UiOotyia, Xosg, 
and Xvtqol ? Which was the greatest feast ? Who pre- 
sided at it ? Who at the others ? 

288. Schlegel characterizes the mimetic art among the 
ancients as ideal and rhythmical. Explain his meaning, and 
illustrate it as he has done by an appeal to their sculp- 
ture. 

289. How were the expenses of exhibition and admission 
provided for ? What was the admission money ? How 
was the law regarding it rendered unalterable ? 

290. What is the most striking difference between the 
dress of the actors of the Greek theatre and our own ? 
Why could not we adopt it ? 

291. Explain by Latin words the difference between 
og, oVy£, oang and oore, and also of koX and t£. 

292. Mention instances of the great inconveniences to 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA, 539 

which the ancient tragedians were subjected by the perpe- 
tual presence of the chorus. 

293. Mention the difference between oaiog and SUaiog, 
yviofir} and <f>p6vr)iia, tepov, vabg, Ttfxevog and or)icbg, also 
Ov/uloq, (pm)v, vovg and t/>i>x»'j- What is the usual force of 
iraga in composition with verbs ? 

294. In what cases may the article be used as a pronoun 
in Attic Greek, (1). in poetry, (2). in prose ? 

295. Distinguish between \apiv and tvtm — (paivzrai and 
Soku — rpiTog and TpiTcilog — ratyog and ra^r] — eXirig and 
$6%ri — TrapBevog, vv/uKpr] and yvvrj — SovXtvtx) and SovXoto — - 
dtbg and Safyiwv — rnoXig and acrrv — tievog, <j>l\og and eral- 
pog. 

296. Explain the following idiomatic expressions : 1. vvjul- 
(j>r)v avvfxtyov. 2. olaO' ovv o Spaaov ; 3. ou -yap otoa ctaTto- 
rag K£KTr)/iizvog. 4. wepuxra Tvyyavu. 5. Tvyag <j£6ev $i 
oiKTOv t^ou. 6. aXXa rig xp£«'a cr' tjuou ; 7. ovroc, rt Traffic ; 
8. Zy icat Oavovanqg ofXfia avyKXeiaei to gov. Which of these 
forms have been imitated by the Latin poets ? 

297. Explain the terms, TrpoGqdia, Iwitasig, avtGig, o£u- 
Tijg, (3apvrr)g ; and give the meaning of these terms in the 
Scholia, to itfig, Sia fiicrov, cnrb koivov, ypcuptTai irpog tt\v 

SoTIKTIV, fJLETO^l) aVTt pr)fXCLTOQ. 

298. Give the quantity of the following feet : ionicus a 
majore, pseon secundus, epitritus tertius, proceleusmaticus, 
antispastus, choriambus, bacchius, creticus, molossus, ana- 
paest us, iambus, trochseus, pyrrichus. Give also their deri- 
vations ; and explain the terms, hephthemimer, hemiholius, 
and brachycatalectic. 

299. Trace briefly the different variations in iambic metre 
from the time of the Iambographi to the age of Aristo- 
phanes, and show that they took place both in manner and 



£40 THE GRECIAN DRAMA 

extent pretty nearly as might have been expected. Institute 
a brief comparison between the accounts of Aristotle and 
Horace respecting this metre. 

300. Distinguish between 7rra>xoc and ttLv^q, icaipbg and 
yoovog, yaimuv and yapeioOai. When was rvoavvog first 
used in a bad sense ? What is Dawes's canon respecting a 
woman speaking of herself in the plural number ? What is 
the effect of two negatives in Greek ? What of three ? 

301. To what period does Porson refer the subscription 
of the iota ? State the principle of the orthography ob- 
served by him in /can, Kara. 

302. What is the measure of the verse termed EvpnriSuov 
j£<j<japE<TKai$&Ka<rvX\afiov ? Give the rules of the comic te- 
trameter catalectic. Specify the licences and peculiarities 
of comic dimeter iambics. 

303. Explain the analogy between an iambic senarius, 
and a catalectic tetrameter trochaic. In what case is the 
second foot of the latter required to be a trochee ? 

304. Specify the distinctions between tragic and comic 
metre, iambic and trochaic. 

305. State the Aristophanic anapaestic. State also some 
of the licences admitted in this verse, and account for them. 

306. Specify the Ionic forms used by the tragedians. Are 
lg and ilg used indiscriminately by comic writers ? 

307. Prove by analogy that ZXsuvbg is not an Attic word. 
How are the compounds of iczpag, Kpiag, formed ? 

308. Which is the correct method of writing ypafifx tern, 
\pu Igti, or ypajAfii) Vr<, \pua f ari, and why ? 

309. When is a verse termed aavvapT^rog ? When 
logaoedicus ? When ithyphallic ? When prosodiacus ? 
When polyschematistus ? 

310. What feet are admissible in an Ionic verse a majore ? 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 541 

When is the verse termed Epionic ? How is an Ionic verse 
a minore constituted ? State the licences in both. 

311. Explain the nature of choriambic metre. What is 
meant by an epiehoriambic verse? How is an antispast 
composed ? Hence deduce the various kinds of antispasts. 

312. Define the dochmius. Of what does a Pherecra- 
tean verse consist ? State the peculiarity in the Glyconeus. 
What feet are admissible in pseonic metre ? 

313. What is a Glyconeus polyschematistus ? Define the 
Priapeian, Eupolidean, and Cratinean verse. 

314. Distinguish between Aa/3av and Xa^ttv yepac, alrho 
and iZiaiTEh), TTpdfTasiQ kcikwq and iroihig kclkwq, juiaZog and 
fuiacTTOQ, Etdu) and udiw, t%jc, tLSyg and tlSrjg, (fnXoirarpig, 
fpiXoTToXtg and (piXiWriv, yeuo> and yeuo/ucu, irpog tovtqiq and 
7rpoc Tavra, avvno and avvo>, a7rrtt> and cnrropai, Kr\pv%at and 
KT)pvtiai. 

315. What is the construction of rvy\avw^ Xayxavio*, and 
Kvptio ? State the construction of $0ovew, and give a parallel 
instance of inmdeo from Horace. 

316. How are juljuvrjjua/, ciiodavofiai, and similar words 
construed with participles ? Give analogous instances from 
Latin writers. 

317. What cases does Ikwq^wv take after it? What 
peculiar force frequently belongs to the pronoun o& in the 
tragedians ? Is ifis altogether a Homeric word ? 

318. Define the force of ttots in interrogations. What 
Latin word corresponds to it ? In what case are the tra- 
gedians partial to the particle tol ? 

31 9. What is the rule respecting the use of the Doric dia- 
lect in anapsestics ? 

320. Which is the Attic form, 'A-xaacde, or 'AxauKog ? 
Does Homer say /3trj 'H/wncAW*?, rnrep, or otjirip, and why ? 



542 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



321. What is the quantity of comparatives in twv in Attic 
and Ionic writers ? Compare the usage of QavpaZw and 
miror. 

322. Explain the force of pr\ ov ye. What meaning do 
KOifjiiZto and koijulcloj sometimes convey ? In what sense is 
Kt/cXrjjuat frequently understood ? 

323. Define the term Datismus. Compare the construc- 
tion of aXkaavby and muto. Compare the usage of i\vog 
and vestigium. 

324. To what figure is the expression vvp$r\v avvp<pov 
referred ? Cite parallel instances from Greek, Latin, and 
English authors. 

325. Give instances of a double superlative from Greek 
and Latin writers. Under what limitations is the article 
used for the pronoun relative ? 

326. In what case are the particles a\\a yap of frequent 
occurrence ? Notice the coincidence in the use of seal enim. 

327. Give instances of the figure anastroplie. Also of 
that termed varepov npoTspov. In what case do the old 
Attics use a plural verb with a neuter plural ? 

328. Illustrate the senses of "iva with the subjunctive, 
optative, and indicative. What tenses of the subjunctive 
are used in negative propositions after pi] or ov prj ? 

329. Cite instances of si in Latin used as the Greek tl for 
utinam. What is the construction of the impersonals &7, 
Xprj, and the substantives Xi° £( ^ XP H ^^ Xi° £ta * 

330. How does the quantity of Xuw, of koXoq, and of 
(papoQ) or ^ajooc, differ in Homer and the tragedians ? De- 
fine the figure oxymoron, and give instances. 

331. Explain the force of au with a participle, as 6 ael 
%,vvTvyb)v. Compare a similar use of semper in Cicero. 

332. Which of the expressions pi) pipfyov? pi) pep$ai> pij 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 543 

jut/i^p, fxi) fJit/jLipy are correct ? Give instances of the figure 
termed by Lesbonax to <r)(r)}xa ^Attikov. 

333. What is the rule respecting the use of ys after kol 
ju?)y, ov [iriv, kciitoi, <fec. by the Attics ? Enumerate the 
Doric forms used by the Attics. 

334. Give the rule respecting the position of the proper 
name, the pronoun, and the particle Se, in transferring an 
address from one person to another. 

335. Explain the difference in usage between zfiov, Ipoi, 
£/u£, and pov, juo<, fxe. In what cases are fir) ov joined to- 
gether in the same sentence ? 

336. What is the meaning and force of |3ouc and hnrog 
in composition ? Show the force of the particle av when 
repeated in a sentence. 

337. What are the different usages of the imperfect 
tense ? What is the government of 6 avtog ? Give in- 
stances of idem having the same government in Latin. 

338. Distinguish between Zvpfopa and ZwaXkayi], KpaTttj 
and ap-^d), Oewpbg and irpeafivg, hcdrifiio) and cnrodriiuiiio, cWr} 
and Big, t}ko> and cp^o/iac, airsifii and cnripxofiai, artyicTog 
and aTeXEurjjroe, aXriQzg and a\r}0lg in interrogative sen- 
tences, yvwrbg and yvuxrroQ, Siaropog and diaropog, kcu nolog 
and Trotog kcu, irepovr} and iropirri. 

339. What does the particle Srj denote in interrogative 
sentences ? Explain the difference between ypaxpag s^w 
and typa\pa. 

340. What is the meaning of ouroc when it denotes the 
person spoken to, and of ode avijp when it denotes the per- 
son speaking ? 

341.. Give the different usages of the middle voice. Is 
the middle ever used for the active, and the active for the 
middle, where both voices exist ? Give instances. 

342. When is the particle av joined with the subjunctive, 



544 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

and when with the optative mood ? What effect does p 
initial produce upon a short vowel preceding ? 

343. Explain the meaning of cikoucu when joined with the 
adverbs Mnftfoi?, zv, &c. and show by instances that audio 
was used in the same sense by the Latins. 

344. What is the meaning of irpog with a genitive case ? 
Explain the meaning of aoi and icoi when said to be redun- 
dant. 

345. Explain the force of the prepositions in the words 
£7rocArjjua, irpocrKUpat, htyaivw, jU£ra7rtjU7rcu, TrspnroTaopai) 
iraoTrovtOfAai, avaictvriaig, KaTcucrrivu), avvTOfiog. 

346. What is the quantity of the penult, of the following 
words in Homer and the tragedians, i<roe, ^tXoc, "Ajojjc, 
aXvi*), Saicpvijjv (lacrymavum), SaKpvuJv (lacrymans), (j>vw, 
aei : the quantity of the first syllable of mart*;, crjccc, Ovyarrjp, 
aBavarog : and the last of fxiyag and raXag. Quote autho- 
rities. 

347. In what cases may the article be omitted, and in 
what not, before the infinitive used as a noun ? 

348. Under what circumstances is cue used for tig in the 
Attic and in the Ionic dialect ? 

349. Distinguish between rfco/iev jmavQavstv and ^KOfitu 
f,iadr]a6fihvoiy ottov and ottol, (hu£w and fWcu£cu, bdbg and 
udog, dXaaOai and TrXavaaOai, aarv and ttoAcc, ov prj \aj3ijg 
and oi> Xqipsi, tl difug and § Bifitg. 

350. What is the general meaning and usage of verbal 
adjectives in ifiog ? What is the signification of the article 
with an adverb ? 

351. What is the meaning of iypa with an adverb, or the 
accusative neuter of an adjective ? Give the distinct mean- 
ings of 0uXa<7<rcu in the active and middle voices. 

352. Under what circumstances may a short syllable be 
lengthened at the end of an anapsestic line ? 






THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 545 

358. Which of the following expressions is correct, and 
which solecistical, irol Tig t\Qy; irot Tig av e\0y; 7rot Tig 
i\6oi ; Trot Tig av eXOoi ; 

354. In what tenses and persons is the subjunctive used, 
where we should regularly expect the imperative ? 

355. Of the forms avOig and avTig, which was used by 
Homer, and which by the Attic writers ? 

356. Under what circumstances has olog the sense of 
possibilis ? What is the meaning of the future participle 
after verbs of motion ? 

357. Give the different meanings of aal p)v in the tragic 
writers. What is the signification of iraoa with the geni- 
tive, dative, and accusative, and what its primary sense ? 

358. Distinguish accurately between (piXog^ IraXpoc, 
Zzvog, TTpo&vog, and dopv%tvog. What are the several 
meanings of ov jmr), and ou ? 

359. Under what circumstances is the article prefixed 
to an adjective in the tragic writers ? 

360. What is the quantity of the last syllable of accusa- 
tives in a from nominatives in evg ? Quote exceptions, if 
any. 

361. Under what circumstances do nominatives or accu- 
satives, put absolutely, generally occur ? 

362. When may the nominative plural masculine apply 
to one woman ? 

363. What is the quantity of the last syllable of adverbs 
ending in u or i. And which is the proper orthography ? 

364. What vowels and diphthongs form in scansion only 
one syllable with ov ? Quote instances. 

365. Explain and illustrate the figure called Oropism. 
Whence and why was it so called P 

366. Show the difference in meaning of the following 

N N 



546 THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 

words in the active and middle voices : zKwlfnruj, <j>v- 
\ciGdU), pvii), XP® C0 -> Si^olgkW) <j>aiv(ij, iroptvii), cltttw, t\(D^ 
7rav(jj. 

367. What is the force of the prepositions in the compo- 
sition of the following words : i2eurla>, irapapzifiopai, irpoa- 
Tidr)m, p.zviaTr\pi, avarXrif.il, 7rpo0aivaj, Kartell), £7T£{<T7n7rra>, 
vTrepcjjtpit), TrpoXaijipavoj, £^av£^w, TrapauTrau), KaTariOepaij 
cHpoppan), aUju|3dAXw 5 psrip^opai, i^yiopai, 7rpoSt8w/.(f, 
£7Tl(jiiOv£lx), ciaxu)\vii). 

368. Under what restrictions may a plural noun be 
joined with a verb dual ? 

369. When two verbs, or a verb and a participle, gov- 
erning different cases, refer equally to the same noun> by 
which of them must the noun be governed ? 

370. With what words do pi) and i) form a crasis in 
scanning ? What is the accentuation of pera, lm, irapa, 
&c. when used for piTtari, Ittzoti, &c. f 

371. W T hat are the different forms of the future passive, 
according to Monk ? And what are the futures middle 
used passively, which occur in the tragic writers ? 

372. Distinguish between ilpyziv and tlpytiv ; also be- 
tween tpyov and ttovoq ; and give the Latin words corres- 
ponding to the two latter. 

373. What is the rule for subjoining the iota when icai 
forms a crasis with another word ? When is pr) ov used 
before an infinitive mood f 

374. What are the different forms and quantity of ad ? 
Explain and illustrate the usage of aAAa yap. 

375. What is the quantity of the second syllable of 
aviatA) and aviapoQ? Also of the third of aviapoq in the 
different Greek poets ? 

376. What was the formula used by messengers in con- 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 547 

eluding their narrations ? How is M firjv with or without 
SSe used f 

877. Is ujg in Attic Greek ever used for ug, except in 
the case of animate objects 9 

878. What tenses of the middle voice have a strict 
medial signification ? 

379. What is the accentuation of disyllabic prepositions 
when placed. between a substantive and the adjective be- 
longing to it ? 

380. Can the iota of the dative case be elided ? State 
the various opinions on this point, and the reasons for your 
own. 

381. What moods with and without av does twg require 
when it signifies " until ?" 

382. What is the meaning of kXvoj with an adverb ? 
Give instances of a similar usage of audio. 

383. In what cases may a long vowel be elided ? What 
is the Attic distinction between Svolv and Svtiv ? 

384. What is the meaning of derivative adjectives ending 
in tfiog ? Give instances of nouns media? significationis. 

385. What is expressed by nouns ending in njpiov ? 
What is the meaning of words in 6zv ? 

386. In what different senses does rvfyXog occur ? Give 
instances of a similar usage of coccus. 

387. Show how the position of the accent alters the 
meaning of the following words : Ota, ayiov, kciXiov, a\\a, 
v£/io>, vuv, zifii, [5iog, Sikcucl, avSpwv, Ittu, Kparog, tlcng, 
<7r/a, wjLiog, Oviiog, i\kix)v. 

388. State the difference between fiwfiog and orjuog ; also 
between rpofyog and rpoyzvg. 

389. Of the expressions ^r) SiafiaWe, /uli) StafiaWyg, and 
jur} §caj3aXpc, which is the incorrect one ? 



548 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 



390. Of the forms Svvy, Svvq, Svvai, which did Elmsley 
and Porson respectively prefer ? 

391. Give Hermann's definitions of metre, rhythm, sym- 
metry, and order. The nature of the law of order ? 

392. Numbers are either unlimited or limited ; orders 
are either simple or periodic ; periodic orders are either 
diminished or concrete — Define each. 

393. Hermann's definition of measure ? What does he 
mean by doubtful measure ? What by disproportionate 
measure ? 

394. The permutation of numbers is made mfive differ- 
ent ways ? What is the EpiploTce ? Its three species ? 

395. Hermann's definition of asynartete verses differs 
from that of Heath ? He advances two other objections 
to the metrical nomenclature of the grammarians ? 

396. What is meant by catalexis, cnroOtcrig, aywy// ? 
There is a threefold conjunction of musical with metrical 
numbers ? 

397. There are three instruments by which the rhythm 
of the words is adapted to the rhythm of the verse ? Her- 
mann's definition of csesura ? Species of caesura according 
to Hermann ? 

398. The substitution of short syllables for long, or con- 
versely, can be effected in only two places ? 

399. What four artifices, by which the numbers of lan- 
guage are adapted to metrical numbers, does Hermann 
rank under prosody ? 

400. The convenience of the metre lies in elongation and 
correction of syllables, hiatus, elision, crasis, and synizesis ; 
give Hermann's views on each. 

401. Metres are either simple or not simple; of the 
former there are three species ? Of the latter there are 



THE GRECIAN DRAMA. 549 

two ? Mixed metres are twofold ? Compound metres are 
twofold? Give Hermann's reasons for the identity of 
iambic and trochaic verse. 



THE END. 



tf? , 






<L\ V 



ERRATA. 



PAGE LINE 

7 15 & 24 For Phrynicus read Phrynichus. 

17 11 For T^a-^i'.a read rpayitt. 

30 Last line For or read nor. 

81 12 For there read there. 

90 8 For ahi'iv read alrs7v. 

136 35 For Euripides read Euripidis. 

137 42 For Sophocles read Sophoclis. 
142 25 For month read mouth. 

192 Last line For name read name of. 

261 12 For tbe read the. 

267 16 For Archllocus read Arehilochus. 

268 25 For thre read three. 

317 2 Far mon meter read monometer. 

365 5 For one read one. 

375 29 For b read be. 

417 20 For lUMi read Ui%i^. 

421 17 For vx read vx. 

443 1 For TtXrAv-Ji read rshvAvu 

474 1 7 For t-w read r «. 

£07 2 For optativ read optative. 



LIBRARY OF 



CONGRESS 





003 056 385 2 




